GREAT ARCHERS AND THEIR 
WEAPONS and FRESH ARROWS 
«* ^ FROM MANY QUIVERS # <* 



A STUDY OF ILLUSTRATIVE POWERS 

OF PULPIT ORATORS, WITH 

SELECTIONS OF THEIR 

ILLUSTRATIONS 



BY 

LOUIS ALBERT BANKS, D, fr 



A utter of 



Hidden Wells Ox Comfort, 
Fresh Bait for Fishers of Men, Etc 



Published by 

F. M. BARTON, Caxton Bldg. 
Cleveland, Ohio* 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

JAN II 1904 

'1 Copyright Entry 
CLASS ft- xXc. No. 

; "copy s 



•'i 



Copyrighted 1903 

BY 

F. M. BARTON. 



/ 
^ 



?H-0 



Great Archers and their Weapons. 



/ iO 



CONTENTS, 



PAGE 

I. Henry Drummond 7 

II. Phillips Brooks ,. , , 10 

III. Charles H. Spurgeon 13 

IV. Henry Ward Beecher 16 

V. Canon H. P. Liddon 19 

VI. Thomas Guthrie 22 

VII. T. DeWitt Talmage 25 

VIII. Joseph Parker , 28 

IX. Robert South 31 

X. John McNeill 34 

XI. Hugh Macmillan 37 

XII. Frederick W. Robertson .....,..., 40 

XIII. Thomas Chalmers. 43 

XIV. William L. Watkinson . . . . 4 6 



HENRY DRUMMOND. 

Professor Henry Drummond occupies a unique position. Other scientific men tell 
us that he was not truly a great scientist. The famous theologians tell us that he was 
neither a great theologian nor a great preacher. Compared with such men as Moody, 
or Finney, or a dozen others one might mention, he was not a great evangelist, and yet, 
Henry Drummond will stand for many a year in the class of great men to all those who 
came under his spell. 

Drummond had a remarkable personality. The effect of the man and his speech, 
was intensely spiritual, yet he was the farthest removed from the goody-goody, and 
never talked sanctimonious platitudes. He was very sane, and made no distinction 
between what was secular and what was religious. He entered into sport or travel, or 
exploration, scientific study, or evangelistic work, all in the same spirit, a spirit of sin- 
cere love for God, and brotherly fellowship toward all men. He seemed to everybody 
like a big brother. He had much of the spirit of the Master, which was revealed in his 
unselfishness. He was Christlike in that he went about doing good, and found his 
supreme gladness in giving help and happiness to his fellow travelers day by day. The 
world is a much sweeter place because, for a while, he lived in it. The path of life is 
more fragrant for multitudes because he has passed over it. 

Drummond's preaching has one blessed quality in that in purpose and in fact it 
was always helpful. There was no striving to be eloquent, no undue effort for effect, 
but a constant endeavor to help the listener or the reader. The illustrations which fol- 
low bear witness to all. I have said. You will see in them the brotherliness, the sympa- 
thy, the reverence, the clear-headed common-sense, the high motive in little deeds, 
which, taken altogether, made Henry Drummond what he was. 

In his "City Without a Church," he illustrates the difference between reverie and 
doing, in this way: 

1. Heaven — "If Heaven were a siesta, religion might be conceived of as a reverie. 
If the future life were to be mainly spent in a Temple, the present life might be mainly 
spent in a Church. But if Heaven be a City, the life of those who are going there must 
be a real life. The man who would enter John's Heaven, no matter what piety or what 
faith he may profess, must be a real man. Christ's gift to men was life, a rich and 
abundant life. And life is meant for living. And abundant life does not show itself in 
abundant dreaming, but in abundant living — in abundant living among real and tangible 
objects, and to actual and practical purposes. 'His servants,' John tells us^ 'shall serve.' 
In this vision of the City he confronts us with a new definition of a Christian man — the 
perfect saint is the perfect citizen." Drummond's interpretation of John's prophecy 
about the coming City, is very striking: 

"To John it was the most obvious thing in the world. Nay, knowing all he knew, 
its realization was inevitable. We forget, when a thing strikes us as strange, that John 
knew Christ. Christ was the Light of the World— the Light of the World. This is all 
that he meant by his vision, that Christ is the Light of the World. This Light, John 
saw would fall everywhere — especially upon cities. It was irresistible and inextinguish- 
able. No darkness could stand before it. One by one the cities of the world would 
give up their night. Room by room, house by house, street by street, they would be 
changed. Whatsoever worketh abomination or made it a lie would disappear. Sin,. 
pain, sorrow, would silently pass away. One day the walls of the City would be jasper; 
the very streets would be paved with gold. Then the kings of the earth would bring 
their glory and honor into it. In the midst of the streets there would be a tree of 
Life. And its leaves would go forth for the healing of the nations." 

Drummond believed with Emerson that all attempt at reformation resolved itself 
at last back to a personal question. Speaking how we were to make the city better he 
said: 

2. Reformation — "Where are you to begin? Begin where you are. Make one 
corner, room, house, office, as like Heaven as you can. Begin ? Begin with the paper 
on the walls, make that beautiful; with the air, keep it fresh; with the very drains, 

7 



8 GREAT ARCHERS 

make them sweet; with the furniture, see that it be honest. Abolish whatsoever work- 
eth abomination— in food, in drink, in luxury, in books, in art; whatsoever maketh a 
lie — in conversation, in social intercourse, in correspondence, in domestic life. This 
done, you have arranged for a Heaven, but you have not got it. Heaven lies within, 
in kindness, in humbleness, in unselfishness, in faith, in love, in service. To get these 
in, get Christ in." 

Drummond believed with all his heart that Christianity was the only solution for 
the problems of human life and society. Illustrating this he says: 

3. Reform — "It is idle to talk of Christ as a social reformer if by that is meant 
that his first concern was to improve the organization of society, or to provide the 
world with better laws. These were among his objects, but his first was to provide the 
world with better men. The one need of every cause and every community still is for 
better men. If every workshop held a workman like Him who worked in the carpenter's 
shop at Nazareth, the labor problem, and all other workman's problems would soon be 
solved. If every street had a home or two like Mary's home in Bethany, the domestic 
life of the city would be transformed in three generations." 

Drummond knew how to cut like a knife when his indignation was aroused at 
oppression. How strongly the feeling was back of the words in this paragraph against 
Rome's hiding of Jesus in forms : 

4. Formalism — "Everything that spiritual and temporal authority of man could do 
has been done— done in ignorance of the true nature of Christianity — to dislodge the 
religion of Christ from its natural home in the heart of Humanity. In many lands the 
churches have literally stolen Christ from the people ; they have made the Son of Man 
the priest of an order; they have taken Christianity from the city and imprisoned it 
behind altar rails; they have withdrawn it from the national life and doled it out to the 
few who pay to keep up the unconscious deception." 

Drummond's illustrations are always very simple and natural. Here is one con- 
cerning the gravitation of sin: 

5. Sin — "When we see a man fall from the top of a five-story house, we say the 
man is lost. We say that before he has fallen a foot; for the same principle that made 
him fall the one foot will undoubtedly make him complete the descent by falling over 
eighty or ninety feet. So that he is a dead man, or a lost man from the very first. The 
gravitation of sin, in a human soul, acts precisely in the same way. Gradually, with 
gathering momentum it sinks a man further and further from God and righteousness, 
and lands him, by the sheer action of a natural law, in the hell of a neglected life." 

Illustrating the danger of neglect Drummond says: 

6. Neglect — "From the very nature of salvation, therefore, it is plain that the only 
thing necessary to make it of no effect is neglect. Hence the Bible could not fail to lay 
strong emphasis on a word so vital. It was not necessary for it to say,' how shall we 
escape if we trample upon the great salvation, or doubt, or despise, or reject it. A 
man who has been poisoned only need neglect the antidote, and he will die. It makes 
no difference whether he dashes it on the ground, or pours it out of the window, or 
sets it down by his bedside, and stares at it all the time he is dying. He will die just 
the same, whether he destroys it in a passion, or coolly refuses to have anything to do 
with it. And, as a matter of fact, probably most deaths, spiritually, are gradual disso- 
lutions of the last class rather than rash suicides of the first." 

Drummond was peculiarly strong in his use of nature and physical life generally as 
an illustration of the spiritual. Take this for example : 

7. Spiritual Life — "Evolutionists tell us that by the influence of environment cer- 
tain aquatic animals have become adapted to a terrestrial mode of life. Breathing nor- 
mally by gills, as the result and reward of a continued effort carried on from genera- 
tion to generation to inspire the air of heaven direct, they have slowly acquired the 
lung- function. In the young organism, true to the ancestral type, the gills still persist — 
as in the tadpole of the common frog. But as maturity approaches, the true lung 
appears; the gill gradually transfers its task to the higher organ. It then becomes 
atrophied and disappears, and finally respiration in the adult is conducted by lungs 
alone. We may be far, in the meantime, from saying that this is true. It is for those 
who accept it to deny the justice of the spiritual analogy. Is religion to them unscien- 
tific in its doctrine of regeneration ? Will the evolutionist who admits the regeneration 
of the frog under the modifying influence of a continued correspondence with a new 
-environment, care to question the possibility of the soul acquiring such a faculty as that 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. Q 

of prayer, the marvellous breathing-function of the new creature, when in contact with 
the atmosphere of a besetting God? Is the change from the earthly to the heavenly 
more mysterious than the change from the aquatic to the terrestrial mode of life?" 

Here is another illustration from nature, very common and very simple, but it 
illustrates : 

8. Nature and Spirit — "Nature never provides for man's wants in any direction, 
bodily, mental, or spiritual, in such a form as that he can simply accept her gifts auto- 
matically. She puts all the mechanical powers at his disposal — but he must make his 
lever. She gives him corn, but he must grind it. She elaborates coal, but he must dig 
for it. Corn is perfect, all the products of Nature are perfect, but he has everything 
to do to them before he can use them. So with truth; it is perfect, infallible. But he 
cannot use it as it stands. He must work, think, separate, dissolve, absorb, digest ; and 
most of these he must do for himself, and within himself. If it be replied that this is 
exactly what theology does, we answer it is exactly what it does not. It simply does 
what the greengrocer does when he arranges his apples and plums in his shop-window. 
He may tell me a Magnum Bonum from a Victoria, or a Baldwin from a Newtown 
Pippin, but he does not help me to eat it. His information is useful, and for scientific 
horticulture essential. Should a skeptical pomologist deny that there was such a thing 
as a Baldwin, or mistake it for a Newtown Pippin, we should be glad to refer to him ; 
but if we were hungry, and an orchard were handy, we should not trouble him. Truth 
in the Bible is an orchard rather than a museum. Dogmatism will be very valuable to 
us when scientific necessity makes us go to the museum. Criticism will be very useful 
in seeing that only fruit-bearers grow in the orchard. But truth in the doctrinal form 
is not natural, proper, assimilable food for the soul of man." 



10 ' GREAT ARCHERS 



II. 

PHILLIPS BROOKS. 

I have for many years regarded Phillips Brooks as the greatest preacher to whom 
I have ever been privileged to listen. I first came in touch with him in the mountains 
of Oregon in my boyhood when his first volume of sermons was published. I read them 
on horseback riding over the mountains or by candle-light in the log cabins. I can 
never forget the fascination, the glory of them. I reveled in them. I thanked God for 
them. They were like a breath from heaven to me. I loved Phillips Brooks from that 
first night in the log cabin when I came in touch with his soul in that book. 

Years afterward, in Boston, it was my privilege to hear him many times in his 
own pulpit, and always with the same great spiritual joy. I have heard other great 
preachers, many who comforted and strengthened and inspired my soul, but in my 
memory of preaching Phillips Brooks stands like a great snow mountain outside of all 
the mountain ranges, as the supreme preacher. The spirit of the man, the glow and 
radiance of his holy personality, lifted one up and made all good things seem possible. 
I have heard some men preach and gone away feeling, "What is the use of my trying 
to preach? I never can expect to do like that." But from Phillips Brooks's grandest 
sermons I always went home feeling tnat I could preach better than ever, and that any- 
thing that was good enough to do, God could give me help to do. More than all other 
men I ever knew he reminded me of the words of John about Jesus : "In him was life, 
and the life was the light of men." 

Phillips Brooks, in some of the epigrammatic sentences which you will find in his 
"Lectures on Preaching," describes himself, and gives some of the sources of his own 
great power. Take such sentences as these: "There must be a man behind every ser- 
mon" ; "To be dead in earnest is to be eloquent" ; or this one, "The sermon is truth and 
man together. It is the truth brought through the man." His declaration that, "The 
personal interest of the preacher is the buoyant air that fills the mass and lifts it," was 
illustrated every time he preached. 

Phillips Brooks's ideal of preaching, which is a key to all his illustrative material, 
may be found in this paragraph : 

9. Preaching — "A man comes and stands before a multitude of his fellow men 
and tells them a story. It is of something which happened long ago, yet which con- 
cerns them. It is of something which happened in one special time and set of circum- 
stances, yet it is universal. As he speaks, his fellow men who listen begin to change 
before him ; they flush and glow ; they tremble in their seats ; they almost leap to their 
feet ; tears start into their eyes. It is a most attractive spectacle. It fires the speaker, 
and he goes on to make yet more intense and glowing emotion that reacts on him. 
One who stands by and gazes, tho he may not hear a word, is caught with the thrilling, 
beating atmosphere, and finds himself trembling with mysterious desires. The voice 
stops, but the spell is not broken. The people rise and go away exalted. They tread 
the pavement as if it sprang beneath their feet and breathe the air as if it were alive 
with beautiful and serious thoughts." 

There is the key to the illustrations of Phillips Brooks's sermons. He was always 
seeking to tell a story. Every sermon he preached was quivering with personal life. 
Because he seldom names people and gives dates and surroundings, some people have 
used Phillips Brooks as an illustration of a great preacher who scorned anecdotes and 
stories in the pulpit. There could not be a greater mistake. He took his stories out of 
their local- surroundings and digested them, but every sermon is alive with illustrations 
of the personal sort. He had great powers of imagination, and when he had a truth to 
make clear he applied that truth to a man, or a woman, or a child under many different 
circumstances and made them live and breathe, made them weep and laugh, made them 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. II 

do and dare, made them hope and aspire before the breathless audience that listened and 
beheld. 

Let us take some illustrations from Phillips Brooks's sermons which give point to 
what I have been saying. Here is one from his sermon on, "The Purpose and Use of 
Comfort." He is illustrating the thought that comfort is given us not for ourselves 
alone but to distribute. What a burst of sunshine there is in this illustration : 

10. Selfishness — "Who is the man who, in his bereavement or his pain, receiving 
comfort from God radiates it, so that the world is richer by the help the Lord has 
given him? It is the reverent, the unselfish, and the humble man. _ The sunlight falls 
upon the clod, and the clod drinks it in, is warmed by it itself, but lies as black as ever 
and sheds out no light. But the sun touches a diamond, and the diamond almost chills 
itself as it sends out in radiance on every side the light that has fallen on it. So God 
helps one man bear his pain, and nobody but that one man is a whit the richer. God 
comes to another sufferer, reverent, unselfish, humble, and the lame leap, and the dumb 
speak, and the wretched are comforted all around by the radiated comfort of that happy 
soul." 

Or take this glimpse which serves as a window, into a great discourse on "The 
Withheld Completions of Life." He is stating his case, making the theme stand out 
clear. How finely it is done in these little stories : 

11. Disappointment — "A poor obscure woman in a sick-room giving her days and 
nights, her health and strength, to some poor invalid; or a great brilliant man out in 
the world neglecting his personal interest in the desire that some of the lagging causes 
of God may be helped forward, or that the men of the city may be better clothed and 
fed and housed. Now such a life, in whatever sphere it may be lived, has its legitimate 
completion. . . . The natural flower that should crown that life of self-devotion 
is gratitude. . . . And now suppose that the gratitude does not come. Your friend 
turns his face to the wall and dies, and never looks at you. The people pass you by and 
waste their cheers upon some charlatan who has been working for himself. What then? 
Is there no disappointment of the soul ; no sense of a withheld completion ; no con- 
sciousness of something wrong, of something that falls short of the complete and 
rounded issue which was natural? Indeed there is ! 'What does it mean?' you ask with 
wonder, even with impatience." 

Phillips Brooks used Bible stories with great skill. In the white-heat of his imag- 
ination he was able to connect them with life outside of the Bible so that they became 
very real and live. Take his sermon on. "The Conqueror from Edom." How new the 
old record becomes under his touch : 

12. Conquerors From Edom — "Edom on the borders of Judah. We open any page 
of human history and what do we see? There is a higher life in man. Imperfect, full 
of mixture, just like that mottled history of Hebrewdom; yet still it is in human his- 
tory what Judea was in the old world — the spiritual, the upward, the religious element, 
something that believes in God and struggles after Him. Not a page can you open but 
its mark is there. Sometimes it is an aspiration after civilization, sometimes it is a 
doctrinal movement, sometimes it is a mystical piety that is developed; sometimes it is 
social ; sometimes it is ascetic and purely individual ; sometimes it is a Socrates, some- 
times it is a St. Francis, sometimes it is a Luther, sometimes it is a Florence Nightin- 
gale. It is there in some shape always — this good among the evil, this power of God 
among the forces of men, this Judah in the midst of Asia. But always right on its 
border lies the hostile Edom, watchful, indefatigable, inexorable as the redoubtable old 
foe of the Jews." 

Phillips Brooks had great power in making the Bible heroes live again, so that their 
personality was as full of strength and aspirations as if they had lived in modern times. 
Look at this picture of Paul in his sermon on "Keeping the Faith." He is portraying 
the close of Paul's life. And how rich and beautiful he makes it: 

13. Paul's End — "It was a noble end certainly. Men lose their love, and hope 
and trust as they grow old. Here was a man who kept them all fresh to the last. Men 
cease to have strong convictions and grow cynical or careless. Here was a man who 
believed more and not less as he knew more of God, and of himself, and of the world. 
His old age did not come creeping into port, a wreck with broken masts and rudder 
gone, but full-sail still and strong for other voyages in other seas. We are sure that 
this was the old age God loves to see ; that the careless and the hopeless and the faith- 



12 GREAT ARCHERS 

less are failures. To such men as Paul alone is God's promise to David fulfilled : 'With 
long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.' " 

The use of imagination and the value of cultivating imagination in preaching are 
ever apparent in studying the sermonic work of Phillips Brooks. Notice this in his 
sermon on "The Consolations of God." He is speaking of finding unexpected comfort, 
and this picture springs to his imagination and falls from his tongue: 

14. Sympathy — "The terrible disappointment in self, the consciousness of sin, 
bursts or creeps in upon us, and then the hands for the first time are reached out for 
consolation, and the great doors — which we have hardly noticed as we passed and re- 
passed on this side of the divine nature, they were shut so close, and we saw so little 
need of entering this way — are flung wide open to take the tired and disappointed crea- 
ture in. It is as if we had sailed gaily all day up and down a glorious coast, rejoicing 
in the winds that swept around its headlands and caught our sails, thinking the bolder 
the coast the better, never asking whether there were a place of refuge anywhere; till 
at last the storm bursts upon us, and then we never thought the coast so beautiful as 
when we saw her open an unexpected harbor and take us into still water behind the 
rocks that we had been glorying in, out of the tempest's reach." 

I have only room for one nore example, and that, too, shall be in illustration of 
the value of an imagination to the preacher. I like to put the emphasis on this, for I 
am sure that preachers as a class do not develop the imagination as they should. The 
quotation I am about to make is from Mr. Brooks's great sermon on "The Law of 
Liberty." So good a judge as Joseph Cook thought that to be his greatest sermon. 
The closing illustration of that sermon, in which he gives us a picture of the Judgment, 
is, I think, the most effective illustration in description of the Judgment Day in all 
sermonic literature. Closing his great discussion of the law of liberty he says : 

15. Liberty — "By this law we shall be judged. How simple and sublime it makes 
the judgment day! We stand before the great white throne and wait our verdict. We 
watch the closed lips of the Eternal Judge, and our hearts stand still until those lips 
shall open and pronounce our fate; heaven or hell. The lips do not open. The Judge 
just lifts his hand and raises from each soul before him every law of constraint whose 
pressure has been its education. He lifts the laws of constraint and their results are 
manifest. The real intrinsic nature of each soul leaps to the surface. Each soul's law 
of liberty becomes supreme. And each soul, without one word of condemnation or 
approval, by its own inner tendency, seeks its own place. They turn and separate; 
father from child, brother from brother, wife from husband, each with the old habitual 
restrictions lifted off, turns to its own ; one by an inner power to the right hand, another 
by a like power to the left ; these up to heaven, and these down to hell. Do we need 
more? It needs no word, no smile, no frown. The freeing of souls is the judging of 
souls. A liberated nature dictates its own destiny." 

This example emphasizes the advantage that is gained by presenting an old truth— 
so familiar as almost to have lost its power — from a fresh point of view. 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. 1 3 

III. 

CHARLES H. SPURGEON. 

Spurgeon had a genius for illustration. Two things united in him, a brilliant 
imagination and remarkable common sense. His great object in preaching was the 
saving of souls. He constantly had in mind the winning of the men who listened to 
him, or those who should afterward read his sermons, to accept Christ as a personal 
Savior. He had absolutely no literary pride. He cared nothing for literary dignity. He 
was like a lawyer pleading before a jury. First and last and all the time he was after 
a verdict. He was willing to make them laugh, to make them cry, to make them mad, 
to shock them, to do anything that would make them see the truth, and arouse them to 
act upon it. 

Many of Spurgeon's illustrations were undoubtedly put in unusual forms, in order 
to challenge attention. No man ever held before his mind more constantly than Mr. 
Spurgeon the prime necessity of getting the attention of the people, if you are going 
to do them good. He made people talk about what he said. 'He filled the community 
with curiosity. He was informal and daring to the last degree in his statements. 

In his Autobiography, Mr. Spurgeon gives a most amusing incident of his early 
pastorate at Waterbeach. One day the mayor of Cambridge, who had tried to curb 
Mr. Spurgeon's tendencies to sensationalism, inquired of him if he had really told his 
congregation that, if a thief got into heaven, he would begin picking the angels' pockets. 
"Yes, sir," the young preacher replied, "I told them that, if it were possible for an 
ungodly man to go to heaven without having his nature changed, he would be none 
the better for being there; and then, by way of illustration, I said that, were a thief to 
get in among the glorified, he would remain a thief still, and he would go round the 
place picking the angels' pockets!" "But, my dear young friend," asked the mayor 
seriously, "don't you know that the angels haven't any pockets?" "No, sir," replied 
young Spurgeon with equal gravity, "I did not know that ; but I am glad to be assured 
of the fact from a gentleman who does know. I will take care to put it all right the 
first opportunity I get." The next Monday morning Spurgeon walked into the mayor's 
place of business, and said to him cheerfully, "I set that matter right yesterday, sir." 
"What matter?" he inquired. "Why, about the angels' pockets!" "What did you 
say?" "Oh, sir, I just told the people I was sorry to say that I had made a mistake 
the last time I preached to them ; but that I had met a gentleman — the mayor of Cam- 
bridge — who had assured me that the angels had no pockets, so I must correct what I 
had said, as I did not want anybody to go away with a false notion about heaven. 
I would, therefore, say that, if a thief got among the angels, without having his nature 
changed, he would try to steal the feathers out of their wings!" "Surely, you did not 
say that?" exclaimed the horrified mayor. "I did, though," Spurgeon replied. "Then," 
he exclaimed, "I'll never try to set you right again !" which was exactly what the young 
preacher desired. 

One Sunday afternoon Spurgeon found many of his congregation nodding, and 
suddenly he broke into his sermon by shouting at the top of his lungs, "Fire! Fire! 
Fire!" And when the people started from their seats, many asking at once where it 
was, he replied, "In hell, for sinners who will not accept the Savior." We can well 
believe that there was no more sleeping that afternoon, and that many people who were 
not present, but who heard the story, came next Sunday to see what would happen. 

Looking through Spurgeon's sermons, we can not but be struck with the fact that 
he often produces great effect by a very brief illustration. It is only a slight touch, 



14 GREAT ARCHERS 

yet it is a window into the sermon that lets light onto his theme. Take this little 
touch in commenting on the Scripture, "If children, then heirs." Spurgeon says: 

16. Thankfulness — "I like to think of the old Scotchwoman, who not only blessed 
God for the porridge as she ate it, but thanked God that she had a covenant-right to the 
porridge. Daily mercies belong to the Lord's household by covenant-right; and that 
same covenant-right which will admit us into heaven above also gives us bread and 
water here below. The trifles in the house and the jewels of the house equally belong 
to the children." 

Speaking of the special blessings that come to us as individuals, he illustrates in this 
way : 

17. Special Blessings — "I believe that every flower in a garden, which is tended 
by a wise gardener, could tell of some particular care that the gardener takes of it. He 
does for the dahlia what he does not do for the sunflower; somewhat is wanted by the 
rose that is not required by the lily; and the geranium calls for an attention which is 
not given to the honeysuckle. Each flower wins from the gardener a special culture. 
The vine has a dressing all its own, and the apple-tree a pruning peculiar to itself. 
And so is there a special benediction for each child of God." 

On another occasion he was preaching on "The Three Hours' Darkness," when 
Jesus hung on the cross. Speaking of the mocking of the mob, he says: 

"At times I have felt some little sympathy with the French Prince who cried, Tf I 
had been there with my guards, I would soon have swept those wretches away.' " 

Here is a little flash which, in a single sentence, throws a flood of light. He is 
speaking of modern philosophers who were obscuring the doctrine of the atonement, and 
describes their work in this way: 

"These modern cuttlefishes make the water of life black with their ink." 

Speaking about the kind of religious life that attracts sinners, he says : 

18. Attracting Sinners — "They used in the old times to catch pigeons and send 
them out with sweet unguents on their wings; other pigeons followed them into the 
dove-cote for the sake of their perfume, and so were captured. I would that every one 
of us had the heavenly anointing on our wings, the divine perfumes of peace, and joy, 
and rest; for then others would be fascinated to Jesus, and allured to heaven." 

The necessity of heartiness in our service brings out this striking illustration : 

19. Heartiness — "We like to associate with people who have hearts — not dry 
leather bottles, out of which all the juice is gone; but those who have heart, and soul, 
and life, and fire, and go." 

Sometimes it is the very daringness of the illustration, the exaggerated contrast, 
that startles the attention. He is speaking about the utter impossibility of succeeding 
in the religious life by works alone without faith. In the midst of his discussion he 
exclaims : 

20. Good Works — "To work your fingers to the bones is nothing. You might as 
well try to climb to the stars on a treadmill as to get to heaven by your good works; 
and, certainly, you might more easily sail from Liverpool to America on a sere leaf than 
ever get to heaven by works and doings of your own." 

The realism of Spurgeon's illustrations is a great element of power. They always 
illustrate. Take this case where he is speaking of the importance of complete surrender 
to Christ and accepting pardon for sin as a free gift. How clearly his truth stands out 
in this illustration: 

21. Free Grace — "You have heard the story of the English king who was wroth 
with the Burgesses of Calais, and declared that he would hang six of them. They came 
to him with ropes about their necks, submitting to their doom. That is the way in 
which I came to Jesus. I accepted my punishment, pleaded guilty, and begged for par- 
don. Put your rope upon your neck ; confess that you deserve to die, and come to Jesus. 
Put no honeyed words in your mouth ; turn out that nonsense of self-righteousness from 
your heart, and cry, 'Save, Lord, or I perish!' If thus you plead you shall never 
perish." . - 

Nothing is too common or homely for Spurgeon to use if it makes clear his mean- 
ing. One day he was preaching about the recklessness of the sinner who keeps in his 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. 1 5 

sin tho he has already been caught in the grip of an evil habit. This is the way he 
illuminates his theme : 

22. Evil Habit — "A mouse was caught in a trap, the other day, by its tail, and the 
poor creature went on eating the cheese. Many men are doing the same. They know 
they, are guilty, and they dread their punishment, but they go on nibbling at their be- 
loved sins." 

He was preaching on death, and the way the presence of God would fill the dying 
hour with comfort and confidence to the Christian. This little touch out of home life 
illustrates for him: 

23. Death — "The child has to go to bed, but it does not cry if mother is going up- 
stairs with it. It is quite dark; but what of that? the mother's eyes are lamps to the 
child. It is very lonely and still. Not so ; the mother's arms are the child's company, 
and her voice is its music. O Lord, when the hour comes for me to go to bed, I know 
that Thou wilt take me there, and speak lovingly into my ear ; therefore I can not fear, 
but will even look forward to that hour of thy manifested love. You had not thought 
of that, had you ? You have been afraid of death ; but you can not be so any longer if 
your Lord will bring you there in His arms of love." 

Like all great preachers who have won many souls to Christ, Spurgeon had a way 
of searching the personal conscience with marvelous fearlessness. Imagine a sinner 
facing this : 

24. Searching Sinners — "When Saladin lay a-dying he bade them take his wind- 
ing-sheet and carry it on a lance through the camp with the proclamation, 'This is all 
that remains of the mighty Saladin, the conqueror of nations.' A lingerer in the grave- 
yard will take up your skull one day and moralize upon it, little knowing how wise a 
man you were. None will then do you reverence. Therefore be humble." 

It is hard to content oneself within the narrow limits of one chapter when 
discussing so fascinating a subject as Spurgeon's illustrations. The key-note to the 
man and his preaching is that he is all the time a soul-winner. Nothing ever rejoices 
him so much as to know that he has won a soul. There came to him from San Domingo 
the story from a missionary that a man had come down from the interior of Hayti to 
ask for baptism. Finding him to be a most intelligent Christian, well instructed in the 
Gospel, the missionary asked how he came to know anything about it. In reply he told 
him that he had fallen in with a sermon translated into the French language, which was 
preached by Mr. Spurgeon. The next Sunday after hearing it, the great preacher told 
about it in his sermon to his own people, and joyfully exclaimed: 

"Oh, friends, I was dull no longer. I had meat to eat. Had an angel stood in 
the study, I could not have felt more delighted with his visit than I did when I read of 
a sinner saved." 



l6 GKEAT ABCHERS 



IV. 

HENRY WARD BEECHER. 

So good a judge as Phillips Brooks declared that Henry Ward Beecher was the 
greatest preacher that America had ever produced, and I am sure that there will be 
very general agreement in the statement that one of the greatest sources of power in 
Mr. Beecher's sermons was the clear and convincing illustrations which he used. His 
sermons are like a room that is bathed in light; there are no dark, muddy places; 
everything is aglow because the house is full of windows. One great characteristic of 
his illustrations is his wide use of nature, and of the most common, every-day exper- 
iences to illustrate the most profound spiritual truths. Of course, in selecting illustra- 
tions from Mr. Beecher's work, one is not only embarrassed but overwhelmed with the 
wealth of resources at hand, and can pick up only a gem here and there from the 
heaps of precious stones, being sure that still more splendid diamonds are in the pile. 
Yet there is one comfort about such an attempt, and that is that we are sure they will 
all be jewels. Take this case in which he is illustrating the rarity of a nature entirely 
dominated by the spirit of benevolence : 

25. Benevolence — "One of the most popular and best recognized of men's qual- 
ities is benevolence, in the various forms of generosity and liberality. And is not a 
man's benevolence very largely like a hunter's tinder-box? Traversing the wilderness 
in rain or snow, he carries neither light nor warmth with him ; but in his pocket he has 
his box, with which, by dint of flint and steel, he can strike out sparks, which shall 
catch the tinder, and from which, by a good deal of pains, taking shelter, he can at least 
kindle a fire by which to cook his victuals or warm his meals. Is not the spirit of 
benevolence a thing by which, as a man makes a fire with a tinder-box and flint and 
steel, one plies motives and instruments, until at last he comes to a fire large enough to 
answer some practical purpose?" 

There is something irresistibly attractive in the way Mr. Beecher brings into his 
sermon the commonest picture by the country roadside, and makes it powerful as a 
factor there in clinching his argument or illuminating his truth. On one occasion he 
was speaking of the effect of conversion on temper. He scorned the idea that the tem- 
per was to be taken out of a highly vital man, but instead it was to be harnessed to the 
service of God, and this is the way he makes us see his truth : 

26. Temper — "There goes down by the side of a man's door a thundering brook; 
and he thinks to himself, 'That continually rattling, that forever bubbling, that lazy, rol- 
licking brook, I will take out of the way.' Well, let him take it out of the way if he 
can. He may take his bucket, and work night and day, and scoop up bucketful after 
bucketful, and carry it away, and yet the brook will be undiminished as long as the 
mountain clouds dissolve and feed its sources. But that man, in a better mood, says; 
'I will throw a little dam across that brook, and will build a mill, and will make it work 
for me.' Ah! that he can do. He builds his mill, and sets his wheel, and the brook 
is taught to run over the wheel, and the wheel works to the pressure of the brook, and 
industry goes on within. He could not subdue the brook, but he could make it work 
for him. A man can not eradicate his temper, but he can determine what it shall do." 

I think the very homeliness of Mr. Beecher's illustrations is a great element of 
power. They do not need to be explained. Everybody knows what they mean and 
sees the point at a glance. In preaching that is very important. The preacher is not 
an essayist, he is a herald ; and when a man is making an announcement, it must be as 
plain as day. So Mr. Beecher's illustrations are mostly of that kind. He is emphasiz- 
ing the fact that the Christian life is redeeming a man out of his sins, and the effect 
of his sins-, and preparing him for the heavenly life. We can not yet know exactly 
how beautiful a man will be until he be his perfect self, and here is his illustration : 

27. Preparation — "My mocking-bird has been moulting, and he lost his song; but 
he is beginning to whisper it over again to himself. " He is making here and there a 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. 17 

scattered note. And that is a prophecy of the full swelling song by another month if the 
bird has proper care and is properly fed. I hear the full voice in every one of these 
tinkling warblers. So the human soul that has lost its voice, and is moulting in the 
lower sphere is beginning to come to it again, as we see by its joys and aspirations. 'It 
doth not yet appear what we shall be.' " 

No man knew human nature better than Henry Ward Beecher. He knew how to 
thrust his knife straight into the carbuncle growing on a man's heart. This little para- 
graph is a fair sample of his method of dealing with things like that: 

28. Laziness — "Whenever a paragraph appears in the newspaper to the effect that 
William Orton, whose business heretofore had been to black shoes, has inherited from 
his uncle, who recently died in Ireland, twenty thousand pounds sterling, how many 
fools sit on the egg and addle it, wondering if some uncle is not going to die for them, 
and saying to themselves, 'What would you do if you had a hundred thousand dollars:' 
How many men would rather have money that came to them without tasks and sweat in 
it to solidify and cement it !" 

When did a lazy parasite get a sharper thrust than that? 

His keen love and appreciation of nature at first hand shines out in this illustration 
of the beginnings of goodness in a man's life when he has been born again in con- 
version : 

29. Conversion — "The young bird that hangs quivering on the nest — how feeble it 
is in its wings ! And how poor it is at flying ! But by springing, with the aid of its 
wings, it goes a little way; and then it rests, panting. Oh, how hard flying is to the 
young bird ! But, by hunger and the persuasion of its parents, it is induced to venture 
again and perhaps goes fluttering down to the ground. Oh, what hard business it is to 
fly ! But, gathering strength, it flies up to a lower bough. Then it hops to another 
bough. Then it tries to hop to another, which is twice as far off, and misses it, and 
lights on the ground again, where it rests and pants. Then it rises on its wings, and 
goes up, and up, and up. And now how proud it is that it can reach in its flight the 
loftiest bough of the overspreading tree ! And it looks around and congratulates itself, 
and says, 'Am not I a bird?' And before the week is gone it is seen far up above the 
highest trees, and has perfect liberty to go whither it will. So, when men are born into 
duty, their first steps are burdensome and feeble ; but soon, by practice, they lift them- 
selves above the entangling thicket, above all obstructions, and have the liberty of God's 
air. And they are free. They have gained strength of wing by which they can fly 
whithersoever they will in the Father's realm." 

Preaching on our duty to take heed that we do not lord it over other people's con- 
sciences, he paints a picture of the crowded street, which is like a clear pane of glass to 
give light on his theme : 

30. Considerate — "A good driver drives with his eye on every other driver in the 
street. It is not enough for me to drive my own horse and take care of my own wagon. 
1 must look out for other people's horses and wagons as well. I must make calculation 
as to whether that man who is coming toward me will come so near to me, or so near. 
I must consider whether I can pass on this side or on that side. I must keep in view 
the position of all the vehicles in the street and act accordingly. Unless I do these 
things I am not a good driver. And a man in carrying his own conscience must con- 
sider the consciences of others. He must see that in following the dictates of his own 
conscience he does not do violence to the consciences of other people." 

Sometimes Mr. Beecher seizes on some popular character in a widely read book, 
and uses a graphic touch of some well-known scene in fiction as feathers for his arrow. 
Thus in illustrating the necessity of having more than a form of religion, and emphasi- 
zing the fact that the spirit is most essential, he says : 

31. Formality — "Do you recollect the scene in Don Quixote in which the immortal 
knight put upon himself a helmet made of pasteboard? That helmet being smitten and 
pierced by a sword, he sewed it up again, and would not part with it, but in his insanity 
wore it, and felt that he had an all-sufficient helmet on his head. Are there not many 
Don Quixotes among men, who put on the armor that looks very well till some sword 
or spear is thrust into it, but which then is found to be like the pasteboard helmet that 
went to pieces the moment it was touched? If we are to have a piety that will sustain 
us in the flood and in the fire; if we are to have a faith that shall be an all-sufficient 
armor by day and by night, the year around, and from year to year, we must have one 
that is made up of something better than mere pasteboard instruction or a paper belief." 



l8 GREAT ARCHERS 

Mr. Beecher was specially forceful when dealing with any question of reform, and 
he knew how to use the kind of illustrations that suggested loathsome things, just as 
surely as those that filled the air with fragrance and beauty. On one occasion he was 
talking about corruption in city affairs in Brooklyn, and was urging home the truth that 
the only permanent relief was in lifting up the entire body of the citizenship to higher 
standards. Illustrating the folly of hoping to achieve pure city government by the sim- 
ple method of turning one party out and letting the other party in, he says : 

32. Clean Politics — "The old carcass lies decaying in the sun. It is covered all 
over with vermin. Go to and cleanse it, removing every maggot. Take them all away 
and leave it clean. Go back to-morrow, and there will be as many more. The carrion 
corruption is there which breeds vermin. Tho every one of these men, as some ill-ad- 
vised persons have suggested, were hung to a lamp-post before his own door as an 
example; or, tho they were convicted, and were obliged to disgorge, and Sing Sing 
were engorged, what then? The same conscience remaining, and the same facilities for 
fraud remaining, would you be any better off? Now you have men tolerably full; then 
you would have men tolerably empty ; and the same thing would be gone through with 
again. It would be an illustration of the tale in ^sop's Fables, where it is said that 
an old swarm of flies do not take much blood, but, the new ones coming, additional blood 
is required to fill them." 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. 19 



CANON LIDDON. 



One of the great men of the first class in the English pulpit was the late Canon 
H. P. Liddon. Every preacher who spent a Sunday in London for many years counted 
it one of the great opportunities of his life if he had a chance to visit St. Paul's on 
Sunday and listen to one of Liddon's masterly sermons. 

Canon Liddon was in the truest and noblest sense a Biblical preacher, and he used 
illustrations gleaned from the Bible with remarkable effect. See how he makes the situa- 
tion which Paul found at Philippi illustrate the breadth of the Christian message : 

33. Breadth of Gospel — "Christian Philippi was distracted by divisions, not of a 
doctrinal or theological, but of a social and personal character. One feud in particular 
there was between two ladies of consideration, Euodias and Syntyche, which the apostle 
was particularly anxious to heal ; but it was probably only one feud among many. Small 
as it was, the church of Philippi already contained within its borders representatives of 
each of the three great divisions in race of the Roman world. The purple-dealer from 
Thyatira; the slave-girl who was a Macedonian, and apparently born on the spot, and 
who was, on account of her powers of divination, so profitable a possession to her 
owner; the Roman colonist, who had charge of the public prison — all became converts 
to the faith. Here we have an important branch of commerce represented; there the 
vast numbers of people, who in very various grades made their livelihood in official 
positions under government; while the divining-girl was a member of that vast and 
unhappy class to whom the Gospel brought more relief than to any other — in whose 
persons the rights of human nature were as completely ignored as if they had been 
altogether extinguished — the slave population of the empire. He who represents hu- 
manity as a whole spoke through His messengers to every class in the great human 
family; since, 'there was to be neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, bar- 
barian nor Scythian, bond nor free, but all were one in Christ Jesus.' " 

Liddon has a unique way of piling up Scriptural illustrations one upon another 
until he crushes down all opposition by the very weight of them. Thus in his sermon 
on "The Conqueror of Satan," in the part where he discusses the personality of the 
devil, he breaks forth into this paragraph in which Scriptural illustrations stand against 
each other in a row like armed soldiers with drawn bayonets. No man with a ser- 
monic instinct can fail to appreciate this array: 

33. Personality of Satan — "Not to dwell on what St. Paul teaches as to the various 
ranks of energetic evil spirits with whom Christians wrestle — as principalities, powers, 
rulers of the darkness of this world ; or on his description of their chief as 'The prince 
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience ;' 
or on his warnings to the Ephesians against the 'wiles' of Satan ; or to the Corinthians 
against his 'devices;' or to Timothy three times against his 'snare;' not to dwell on 
St. Peter's account of him as 'A roaring lion, going about seeking whom he may 
devour ;' or on St. John's vision of his struggle with St. Michael and the good angels ; 
or on St. James's warrant, that if even we resist him, he will flee from us — let us con- 
sider what Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master, has said upon the subject. How sig- 
nificant is His warning in the parable of the Sower against the Evil One, which takes 
away the divine seed sown in the heart of man ; and in the parable of the Tares against 
the 'enemy' who sows them along with the wheat: thus representing Him first as de- 
stroying good, and next as introducing evil within the range of His influence. How 
full of meaning is the announcement, 'The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing 
in me;' the declaration, T beheld Satan as lightning fell from heaven;' the warning 
to St. Peter, 'Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as 
wheat;'" 
and so on and on he goes, for this is only part of the paragraph. 

A favorite method of Liddon's was to take his starting-point in a Scriptural inci- 
dent, and then find parallels for it in history. Take this case where he is commenting 
on the conduct of the Jews in undertaking to use the ark of the Lord for their own 
selfish advantage. He raises the inquiry: 



30 GREAT ARCHERS 

34. Creed for Self — "Are not we Christians guilty of the same fault, when we 
attempt to use our creed for purposes of worldly advantage, or imagine that its public 
profession will screen us from danger if we engage in doubtful courses of conduct? It 
is easy to carry the ark of God into fields of battle on which neither combatant can 
reasonably hope to be in entire accordance with God's will. In their different ways, 
Oliver Cromwell and Louis XIV. carried the ark into the wars which they waged 
against their opponents; and the impression which they left upon men's minds was 
seen in the reactions which they provoked; in the popular hostility to serious religious 
strictness, which did much to discredit the Restoration, and in the widespread religious 
indifference which preceded the French Revolution." 

In his great sermon on "The Solitude of the Passion" he illustrates a very strong 
thought with a striking illustration from the life of Savonarola : 

35. Savonarola — "History is full of examples of men whose benevolence and kind- 
liness and activity have at first won general applause and admiration, but who have 
been deserted, hated, denounced, perhaps even put to death, when the real character 
of their greatness was discovered. Such a man was Savonarola. . . . Savonarola, 
amid imperfections which are inseparable from our human weakness, was one of the 
greatest religious teachers that the world has seen. He aimed, as all sincerely Chris- 
tian minds must aim, at carrying Christian principles into the public and social life of 
man. He held that politics might be no less Christian than personal conduct. The 
people who had welcomed his teaching with passionate enthusiasm assisted at his cruel 
and ignominious death. Savonarola was too great even for Florence, and there have 
been few ages in the world's history where this lesson has not repeated itself, and where 
integrity of character and elevation of aim have not experienced the alternate vicissi- 
tudes of popular favor and popular dislike, or even violence." 

In his sermon on the theme "Born of a Virgin," a Christmas sermon, Canon Liddon 
has this remarkable paragraph which shows a characteristic feature of his preaching, 
which is to combine illustration and argument, and so weave them together that it is 
one piece of cloth. He is speaking, in that paragraph, touching the influence of the 
Incarnation on womanhood : 

36. Incarnation Created Chivalry — "In the greatest event in the whole course of 
human history, the stronger sex has no part whatever. The Incarnate Son was con- 
ceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary. And therefore in Mary woman 
rose to a position of consideration unknown before. Nothing was forfeited that be- 
longs to the true modesty and grace of woman's nature, but the larger share of influ- 
ence, in shaping the destinies of the Christian races, was secured to her in perpetuity. 
It was the Incarnation which created chivalry and all those better features of modern 
life which are due to it." 

There is a similar illustration of this method in his sermon on "The First Martyr," 
in which he says: 

37. Stephen a Young Christian — "Reflect, brethren, that Stephen was probably a 
young man, and that he was a Christian only for a few months. Not more than eight 
months, it is probable, had passed since our Lord's crucifixion ; but St. Stephen's great 
work was already done, and he had closed by a martyr's death a ministry already rich 
in results. In all the touches of the human soul time counts for less than men think. 
Fifty years may easily be passed without any real growth or work, while a few weeks, 
or days, or even a few hours, may decide the most momentous issues. Concentration 
of aim and intensity of thought will make time to be of little or no account; and a 
young man who throws himself with single-heartedness of purpose into a cause or 
work which he knows to be deserving of his best energies, can do almost anything. 
History is full of the lives of those who have done the work of a long life in a few 
years and have died young. Divines like Aquinas, statesmen like Pitt, musicians like 
Mozart, philanthropists like Edward Denison, missionaries like Martyn and Patterson 
— these have taught the world, in their several places and degrees, that hoar hairs and 
length of days are not a necessary condition of doing effective work." 

Altho the limits of this chapter have already been reached, I cannot refrain from 
giving one other illustration which I think is the best one I have ever seen on the 
credibility of testimony to Christian experience. Liddon is preaching on "The Living 
Water," and in the course of his discussion he answers a very common objection: 

38. Christian Testimony Doubted — "To some who hear me, it may be, it will occur 
to think that what has been urged is, as men speak, mystical language — intelligible no 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. • 21 

doubt to minds of a peculiar cast, but not suited to the practical, matter-of-fact views 
of conduct and duty of simple people. You know nothing then, my brethren, of the 
inner well of water springing up into everlasting life? It may be there, nevertheless, 
like the sunshine and atmosphere, without which your bodily life would be impossible, 
yet which you do not note. You know nothing, you say, of this inward gift. Then 
trust those who do. In the days of ancient Greece there were African travelers who 
penetrated so far as to find that at noonday their shadows turned toward the south. 
They returned and reported the fact, and it was treated by the historians of the day 
with entire incredulity. We know that they had simply crossed the Equator, and that 
their experience is shared by the passengers who crowd every mail-packet that leaves 
the Cape of Good Hope. But the reports which Christians bring back from the land 
of spiritual experience are not less certain, or more incredible, than the story of the 
Greek travelers. The Well of water springing up to the Eternal Life only seems 
mystical until its reality has been practically ascertained; until, like the Samaritans, 
men that heard the Inner Teacher themselves, 'know that this is indeed the Christ the 
Saviour of the world.' " 



GREAT ARCHERS 



VI. 



THOMAS GUTHRIE. 

It may be safely said that Dr. Thomas Guthrie, the great Scotch preacher of his 
age, was the most eloquent man in Europe of his day. We find in him a very remarka- 
ble combination of an intellect as clear as the sunlight with a heart full of electric 
fire. His sermons no more clearly betray the genius of a great mind than they do the 
sympathies of the tenderest heart. It is a rare thing that so splendid a mind has been 
wedded to so gentle and gracious a heart. No man can read Guthrie's sermons without 
a feeling of sadness that he is gone from the earth, and marveling at what it must have 
been to hear him. 

It is certainly a significant thing that this man, so marvelously equipped for the 
work of the Gospel ministry, should have given so much attention and care to the 
illustrations with which he illuminated his discourse. Not even Mr. Spurgeon used 
more frequent illustrations than are found in the printed sermons of Thomas Guthrie. 
If any man could have been independent of illustrative help, surely it would have been 
this man of eloquence and genius. But his printed sermons bear abundant testimony 
that Guthrie regarded appropriate illustrations as of the very highest importance in 
effectively conveying his message to his hearers. 

In the limits to which I am necessarily confined in this chapter, I can choose only 
here and there a precious stone from the casket of jewels before me. Guthrie was 
peculiarly happy in historical illustrations, of which he made frequent use. Take this 
one illustrating the Christian's resource in time of trial : 

39. Weak Swords — "There was a British regiment once ordered to charge a body 
of French cuirassiers. The trumpets sounded, and away they went boldly at them; 
but not to victory. They broke like a wave that launches itself against a rock. They 
were sacrificed to traders' fraud. Forged not of truest steel, but worthless metal, 
their swords bent double at the first stroke. What could human strength, or the most 
gallant bravery, do against such odds? They were slaughtered, like sheep on the 
field. And ever since I read that tragedy, I have thought I would not go to battle 
unless my sword were proved. I would not go to sea with anchors that had never 
been tried. But of all things for a man's comfort and peace, what needs so much to 
be proved as his faith — its truth and genuineness?" 

Many men fail in the use of illustrations because they do not put work enough 
on the telling of a story. Guthrie tells his story with as much care as he devotes to 
any other part of his sermon. Take this one illustrating the superior value of per- 
sonality to appearances: 

40. "A Man for a' That" — "A man who rose on the wings of genius from ob- 
scurity to the highest fame was, on an occasion of a visit to Edinburgh, walking with 
one who plumed himself on his wealth and rank and ancient family. As they strolled 
along the street, Burns — for of him I speak — encountered a country acquaintance, 
attired in rustic dress ; he seized him by the hand, and, leaving his companion offended 
and astonished^ he linked his arm in the rustic's and, with a manner that bespoke 
esteem and admiration of his humble friend, the poet made his way through the brilliant 
crowd that worshiped his genius and ruined his morals. On returning, he was met 
with expressions of surprise that he could so bemean himself, and stoop to walk the 
streets among his fashionable admirers with one in such a vulgar garb. 'Fool/ said 
Burns, his dark eye flashing, and his soul rising above the base pleasures and pur- 
suits he had sunk to in high society, and returning to his own native region of noble 
sentiments ; 'Fool,' he said, 'it was not the dress, the peasant's bonnet and the hodden 
gray, I spoke to, but to the man within ; the man, who beneath that bonnet has a head, 
and under that hodden gray a heart, better than yours, or a thousand such as yours.' 
Nobly said! A true distinction — too often forgotten, between the man and his ex- 
ternals !" 

The same evidence of great care in the clothing of the illustration is in the fol- 
lowing : 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. 23 

41. Rich and Poor — Years ago a trial took place in the highest judicial court of 
our country, which shook this kingdom to its center, and drew on it the eye of the 
world. A queen was on her trial. _ On that occasion, a great man, with the passions 
and power of a crown arrayed against him, stood up boldly in her defense, and, con- 
fronting royalty as a rock confronts the surging sea, flung back the threats with which 
they attempted to deter him from his duty, saying, with defiant air and attitude, 'An 
advocate is to know no person on earth but his client.' But a judge is not even to know 
the client. He is to know nothing but the cause. It appears, however, that such judges 
did not preside in the court that incurred the censure of St. James." 

And then he proceeds to quote that great passage in the Epistle of James condemning 
a difference in the treatment of rich and poor in the Church. 

Guthrie knew the value of the unusual and the surprising in the matter of an 
illustration. And I would like to say here, by the way, that it is always well to cut 
out or take note of any unique and astonishing thing that occurs in the world, for 
the day is sure to come when that will be valuable as an illustration. But often an 
illustration is powerful because the moral drawn from it is unexpected. Take this 
case in which Guthrie is desirous to illustrate sudden conversion : 

42. Sudden Conversion — "One of the greatest marshals of France had for his 
opponent in a civil war the Prince of Conde. In him, Turenne found a foeman worthy 
of his steel — the only man indeed who could rival him in military genius, moving 
troops, the arrangement and fighting of battles, sudden surprises and successful attacks. 
One night, when the prince was supposed to be many leagues away, Turenne lay 
sleeping securely in his camp. He was suddenly aroused to hear in cries and shouts, 
the roar of musketry and cannon, the sign of a midnight assault. Hastening from 
his tent, he cast his eye around him ; and at once discovering, by the glare of burning 
houses, the roar of the fight, the skill with which the attack had been evidently 
planned, and the energy with which it was being executed, the genius of his rival, he 
turned to his staff, and said, 'Conde is come !' Now, in some cases, especially of 
sudden conversion, the advent of faith may be as certainly pronounced upon. The 
peace of death is broken, conscience awakes, sin appears exceedingly sinful, empty 
forms no longer yield any comfort, carelessness about divine things gives place to 
all-absorbing and intense anxieties. Death seems crowned with terrors. Sinai clothed 
with thunders, and exclaiming, 'What shall I do to be saved,' the trembling soul hies 
to the Cross, clasps it, clings to it, to cry, Lord, save, I perish ; in such circumstances 
you can safely say conversion is come, salvation come, Christ come." 

For an almost ideal way of putting forward a historical incident illustrating a 
spiritual truth this one may be well studied: 

43. "Just for the Unjust" — "There is a story of a brave sacrifice once made to 
save the life of a king. The battle had gone against him. Separated by accident from 
his followers he was hard bested; a swarm of foes pressed on him — their swords 
ringing on his helmet and each eager to obtain the honors that were to reward his 
capture or death. He dies unless some one dies in his room. A chivalrous follower 
sees the peril ; spurs his horse into the thick of the foe, shouting as he whirled his 
bloody battle-blade above his head, 'I am the king'' and thus turned against his own 
bosom the swords that had otherwise been buried in his master's. A generous, heroic 
sacrifice ! Yet but a faint shadow of what He offered who lay down His life a ransom, 
not for His friends, but His enemies ; dying, the just for the unjust, that we might 
be saved." 

Thomas Guthrie added to his sermons many a little touch skilfully brought out in 
his illustrations which must have kept his hearers always alert. It is a great art and 
always worth considering. No man with the preacher's instinct will need to have 
specially pointed out what I mean in the following example : 

44. Prayer and Courage — "There was a man in Scotland once so in love with 
prayer that he was wont to retire to his old church in the town of Ayr. and spend 
whole nights upon his knees, till, it was said, they grew hard as the stones he knelt on. 
But what made the knees callous, softened and sanctified the heart; inspiring it at 
the same time with heroic courage. Fit mate of her, John Knox's daughter, who, 
on King James offering to set her husband free if he would own the King's supremacy 
within Christ's church, replied, as she held out her apron, 'I would rather keep his 
head there/ " 



24 GREAT ARCHERS 

I have time to give only one example of the way Guthrie sometimes makes his 
discourse effective by piling one illustration upon another until the weight breaks 
down opposition : 

45. Knowledge of God — "A connoisseur in painting, so soon as the dust of years 
and neglect is wiped from a fine old picture, can tell whose hand laid these colors 
on the canvas — the works of each of the great masters having a character of their 
own. In like manner an antiquarian, tho history is silent on the subject and no date 
stands carved on the crumbling ruin, can tell when this tower was built, or that 
arch was sprung — the architecture of every age being marked by features peculiar 
to itself. And, to pass from small things to great, so distinguished are God's works 
by features all their own — evidences of divine goodness, power, and wisdom — that a 
Bedoween when asked how he knew there was a God when he had never seen Him, 
had good reason to look with surprise on the skeptic, and reply, as he pointed to a 
footprint in the sand, 'How do I know whether it was a man or camel that passed my 
tent last night?'" 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. 2$ 

VII. 

1. DE WITT TALMAGE. 

No man who has lived and preached during the last forty years has been so widely 
read in his sermons as Dr. Talmage. The only rival he could possibly have in the 
race would be Mr. Spurgeon; but when we take into account the fact that for many 
years Dr. Talmage's sermons have been printed every week in a great syndicate of 
newspapers, covering all English-speaking lands and reaching millions of subscribers, 
it is easy to show that even Mr. Spurgeon would be a poor second in the race in the 
question of circulation. It is certainly interesting to study the illustrative quality of 
a preacher who has reached the common people in such an extraordinary way. 

It is peculiarly interesting in Dr. Talmage's case, from the fact that the illustra- 
tive characteristics are perhaps the most striking feature of his sermons. He is a 
master in the art of illustration. It is also true that no man in the last forty years has 
had greater influence in revolutionizing preaching in respect to its being made enter- 
taining and interesting than he. I think it is safe to say that in an overwhelming 
majority of the churches of the country it is no longer considered a crime for a sermon 
to be interesting, and that a reputation for ponderous dulness is becoming a less win- 
ning characteristic in a preacher every year. Both the pulpit and the pew have great 
reason to thank Dr. Talmage for his influence in this direction. 

Of course one might make an encyclopedia from Dr. Talmage's sermonic illustra- 
tions. It has occurred to me that for the purpose of this writing I might be of more 
service if I confined myself to a single class of illustrations, and I have chosen a class 
in which all must agree that Dr. Talmage is peculiarly happy : that is, the illustrations 
which serve as the open door to his sermons. He has a happy faculty of using an 
illustration at the very beginning of a sermon, which not only catches the attention 
of everybody, but also really illustrates. That is a great thing to do, and in that he 
may teach all of us. Take, for example, his sermon on "The Ivory Palaces." The 
text is : "All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory pal- 
aces." And here is the introduction : 

46. Fragrance of Text — "Among the grand adornments of the city of Paris is the 
Church of Notre Dame, with its great towers, and elaborate rose-windows, and 
sculpturing of the Last Judgment, with the trumpeting angels and rising dead; its 
battlements of quatre-foil; its sacristy, with ribbed ceiling and statues of saints. But 
there was nothing in all that building which more vividly appealed to my plain repub- 
lican tastes than the costly vestments which lay in oaken presses — robes that had been 
embroidered with gold, and been worn by popes and archbishops on great occasions. 
There was a robe that had been worn by Pius VII. at the crowning of the first Napo- 
leon. There was also a vestment that had been worn at the baptism of Napoleon II. 
As our guide opened the oaken presses, and brought out these vestments of fabulous 
cost, and lifted them up, the fragrance of the pungent aromatics in which they had 
been preserved filled the place with a sweetness that was almost oppressive. Nothing 
that had been done in stone more vividly impressed me than these things that had been 
done in cloth and embroidery and perfume. But to-day I open the drawer of this text, 
and I look upon the kingly robes of Christ, and as I lift them, flashing with eternal 
jewels, the whole house is filled witih the aroma of these garments, which 'smell of 
myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces.' " 

Again he is preaching on, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do," 
and this is the illustration with which he opens: 

47. Balm for Sin — "Alexander the Great was wounded, and the doctors could not 
medicate his wounds, and he seemed to be dying, and in his dream the sick man saw 
a plant with a peculiar flower, and he dreamed that that plant was put upon his wound 
and that immediately it was cured. And Alexander, waking from his dream, told this 
to the physician; and the physician wandered out until he found just the kind of plant 



26 GREAT ARCHERS 

which the sick man had described, brought it to him, and the wound was healed. 
Well, the human race had been hurt with the ghastliest of all wounds, that of sin. 
It was the business of Christ to bring a balm for that wound — the balm of divine 
restoration." 

Opening a sermon on the wickedness of licensing the liquor traffic from this text, 
"It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood," 
Talmage utters these striking sentences: 

48. Blood Money — "For sixteen dollars and ninety-six cents Judas Iscariot had 
sold Christ. Under a thrust of conscience or in disgust that he had not made a more 
lucrative thing out of it, he pitches the rattling shekels on the pavement. What to do 
with the conscience money is the question. Some say, 'Put it into the treasury.' 
Others say, 'It is not right to do that, because we have always had an understanding 
that blood money, or a revenue obtained by the sale of human life, must not be used 
for governmental or religious purposes.' So they decide to take the money and pur- 
chase a place to bury the paupers; picking out a rough and useless piece of ground, 
all covered over with the broken ware of an adjoining pottery, they set apart the first 
Potters' field. So you see the relation of my text when it says, 'It is not lawful for to 
put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.' " 

Take this case in a sermon on "The Fast Young Man," the text being taken from 
the story of the Prodigal : "The younger son gathered all together, and took his jour- 
ney into a far country." Here is the opening paragraph: 

49. The Father's Kiss — '"Do you remember the sermon on the Father's Kiss?' 
said a man as he thrust his arm into the carriage window at the close of one of my 
meetings in England. 'Do you remember that sermon on the Father's Kiss?' I said: 
'Yes, I remember it.' Said he : 'That sermon saved my soul. God bless you. Good by/ 
I thought then, as I think now, that a man might preach a hundred sermons on the 
parable of the Prodigal Son, never repeat himself, and have conversions under every 
sermon, and yet not exhaust the theme." 

Here is another striking opening of a sermon on "The College Student," in which 
the opening of the story of Daniel forms the text. How surely this paragraph would 
catch attention: 

50. Youth and Age — "My text opens the door of a college in Babylon and intro- 
duces you to a young student seventeen years of age, Daniel by name. Be not sur- 
prised if in the college you find many hilarities. Put a hundred young men together 
and they are sure to have a good time. There is no harm in that. God does not write 
out the trees and the grass and the blossoms in dull prose. The old robin does not 
sit moping in the nest because of the chirpings and the lively adventures of the fledg- 
lings that have just begun to fly. Do not come into an orchard looking for winter 
apples on a May morning." 

What grim and awful interest would be aroused at the very beginning of this ser- 
mon on "The Drunkard's Woe." The text is from a story in 2 Kings : "Who slew all 
these ?" And this is the way the sermon begins : 

51. Drunkard's Woe — "I see a long row of baskets coming up toward the palace 
of King Jehu. I am somewhat inquisitive to find out what is in the baskets. I look 
in, and I find the gory heads of seventy slain princes. As the baskets arrive at the 
gate of the palace, the heads are thrown into two heaps, one on each side of the gate. 
In the morning the King comes out, and he looks upon the bleeding, ghastly heads 
of the massacred princes. Looking on each side of the gate, he cried out with ringing 
emphasis, 'Who slew all these?'" 

No preacher needs that I should call his attention to the perfect adaptation of this 
introduction to the subject in hand. 

' I have only space for one more illustration of these happy openings to striking 
sermons, tho it would be easy to make a volume of them, they are so abundant. In a 
sermon on "What Were You Made for?" the text being, "To this end was I born," 
Dr. Talmage begins as follows : 

52. Pilate's Body — "After Pilate had suicided, tradition says that his body was 
thrown into the Tiber, and such storms ensued on and about that river that his body 
was taken out and thrown into the Rhone, and similar disturbances swept that river 
and its banks. Then the body was taken out and removed to Lausanne, and put into- 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. 2/ 

a deeper pool, which immediately became the center of similar atmospheric and aqueous 
disturbances. Tho these are fanciful and false traditions, they show the execration 
with which the world looked upon Pilate. It was before this man when he was in full 
life and power that Christ was arraigned as in a Court of Oyer and Terminer. Pilate 
said to his prisoner: 'Art thou a king, then?' And Jesus answered: 'To this end was 
I born/ Sure enough, altho all earth and hell arose to keep Him down, He is to-day 
empalaced, enthroned, and coronated King of earth, and King of heaven. 'To this end 
was I born/ That is what He came for, and that is what He accomplished/' 



I 



28 GREAT ARCHERS 



VIII. 

JOSEPH PARKER. 

By common consent Joseph Parker is the dean of the non-conformist pulpit in 
England. If a voice is needed to utter a philippic of indignation against some public 
wickedness, all ears turn toward the City Temple in listening attitude. If Protestant- 
ism, especially non-conformist Protestantism, is to speak its word of approval of some 
movement for righteousness, or its word of welcome to some eminent visitor who 
represents the Kingdom of God in other lands, or to utter its word of loving farewell 
to one going forth on a mission in the name of his Lord, it is Dr. Parker's voice 
that is ever desired to make such utterance. Since Spurgeon's death, more Americans 
make a pilgrimage to hear Parker than go to listen to any other European minister. 
But the purpose of these pages is not to deal with the general character of the preach- 
ing of any man, but to speak especially of the character of the illustrations which 
serve to illuminate and make powerful his sermons. Dr. Parker has printed so gen- 
erously that one is embarrassed with the wealth of resources at hand. 

One thing I have found very noticeable in Dr. Parker's preaching, and that is his 
power to use historical illustrations, and get from them great effect, while perhaps he 
will not use more than one or two sentences in historical quotation or description. This 
is undoubtedly a very valuable art, and I will give a number of brief illustrations of 
it in Dr. Parker's preaching. In a sermon on "Almsgiving" I find this : 

53. Charity — "There are many persons who are perfectly ready to give you any 
amount of good advice. The beggar appealed to the cardinal for a penny; the cardinal 
gave him his blessing; the beggar returned the blessing, saying, Tf it had been worth 
a penny you would not have given it to me.' These beggars can reason ! The poor 
are not necessarily foolish." 

In another sermon on "Apostolic Rights," speaking of the divine call which men 
have to their work in life, he says : 

54. Divine Call to Work — "When men have to lash themselves up to their work, 
they can never do it, whatever the work be. A man who has to scourge himself to 
poetry will never write poetry. The man who has to prick and puncture himself in 
order that he may begin to paint something, will never paint anything the world will 
care to see. When Victor Hugo was asked whether epic poetry was not very difficult, 
he said, 'No; easy, or impossible.' So it is with all great elections, to business, to 
literature, to statesmanship, to preaching, to every degree of status, and every tone 
of vocation in life. If the necessity, the pressure, the touch eternal is not felt, then 
all your labor is a beating of the air." 

In that same sermon is another striking illustration of like kind: 

55. Misery and Joy — "When some one told Melancthon that ministry was the 
art of arts, the science of the sciences, the sweet-souled Philip said: Tf he had added 
the misery of miseries, he would have struck the nail upon the head.' The very misery 
is the beginning of joy." 

Here is another pair of illustrations of a similar sort taken from his sermon on 
"The Preaching of the Cross." Commenting on the words of Paul, "Not many wise 
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble," he remarked: 

56. Not Many Mighty — "Then there are some wise, mighty, noble. Circum- 
stances do not always go against the aristocratic and the eminent; men should not 
necessarily condemn them because they are great, after the pattern of this world's 
greatness. Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, one of the greatest workers in the 
Christian field in her day, said with characteristic sweetness, 'I owe my salvation to 
the letter "m"; Blessed be God/ said that sweet soul, Tt does not say, "any" mighty, 
"any" noble; it says, "many" mighty, "many" noble: I owe my salvation to the letter 
"in."' If it had been 'not any noble' where would the countess have been?" 

Pursuing the same theme, he turns it over and looks at it on the other side, 
saying : 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. 29 

57. Earthly and Heavenly — "Yet how differently we act toward those who are 
wise and mighty and noble ! How we fawn upon them ; how we call upon them, 
even if we have to go to the side door. We have lost our Christian dignity. This 
spirit was well rebuked by one illustrious clergyman in his day. He was the son 
of a peer. He could not help that; do not blame him; his consent was not asked. 
But the lady parishioner on whom he called would hear his ancestry, and pedigree, 
and birth and advantages. Said the truly great man, when the palaver was over : 
'Madam, I am surprised that you should talk about such frivolities: I have come 
to speak to you upon matters of eternity.' There he was wise, there he was mighty, 
there he was noble." 

Dr. Parker is very strong in another kind of illustration. He is a man of very 
vivid imagination, and he likes to summon a picture of his own before his audience;, 
and illustrate the problem in hand. I will quote four very brief illustrations taken 
from his sermon on "Spiritual Discernment," all similar in character. 

58. Spiritual Discernment — "Here, for example, is a large brilliant diamond. You 
look at the stone and it pleases you by its wondrous whiteness and luster. You ad- 
mire it, you praise it very highly. You say: 'This stone is without fault of any 
kind — a most beautiful and precious gem.' The lapidary places in your hand a mag- 
nifying-glass of great power, and bids you look at the center of the stone. You look. 
The lapidary inquires what you see, and you reply: 'Why, there is a black spot at its 
very center ! I did not see that without the glass.' " 

Like a lawyer before a jury, the doctor turns his theme over and illustrates in 
another way: 

59. Invisible Ink— "Here is a piece of paper, and you hand it round to your 
friends, to every man amongst them; and they say: 'Whatever have you handed this 
blank piece of paper round for? Are you playing a hoax upon us There is nothing 
upon this piece of paper. Have we to write something upon it?' And you take it 
back and say: Ts there really nothing upon the paper?' And every voice says: 'No, 
cannot we believe our own eyes?^ We are unanimously of the opinion that there is 
nothing upon it.' You just hold it to the fire for the space of a minute or two, and 
lo, it is written all over ! You have developed the secret ink." 

Again he revolves his theme, and this is his picture : 

60. The Ear Attuned — "Here are two men listening to the same piece of music. 
The one man is inspired, enraptured, thrilled, and says mentally : T would this 
might go on forever ! The sweetness, the purity of that wondrous tone, let it never 
cease ! I would abide here constantly.' The other man is saying mentally : T wonder 
when they will be done? It seems a long time!' He looks at the program with weary 
eyes, and mentally resolves that that shall be the last occasion of the kind when he 
will be there. The best ear cannot receive these things or know them, for they are 
musically discerned." 

Sticking to his contrast of two men, he gives his hearers still another illustration 
of his theme: 

61. The Careless Eye — "Here are two men looking at the same picture. The one 
man is chained to the spot : it is to him an enigma, a mystery, a wonder, and a de- 
light; he has never seen such combinations before; he has never before thrilled under 
such wondrous effects. A man behind him, with a thick shilling catalog, says that 
he does not see very much in that, and hastens on to something that has got superficies, 
no matter what the superficies may be ; only let it be extensive enough. Paint for such 
men with a broom !" 

Any man with the preacher instinct in him will realize that under such a text as 
"The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolish- 
ness unto him," such illustrations are of the highest order. 

In a sermon on "Joseph's Elevation," in which he is discussing the comment of 
Joseph's brothers, wherein they recalled the wrong they had done their young brother 
Joseph when they had sold him into captivity, we have another illustration of this 
same sort of use of the imagination : 

"But what about our own recollection, our own conscience, our own power of 
accusation ? A man says : T forged that name twenty-five years ago, and oh, every 
piece of paper I get hold of seems to have the name upon it! I never dip the pen* 



30 GREAT ARCHERS 

but there is something in the pen that reminds me of what I did by candle light, in al- 
most darkness, when I had locked the door and assured myself nobody was there. 
Yet it comes upon me so graphically — my punishment is greater than I can bear!' 
Time cannot heal our iniquities. Forgetfulness is not the cure of all sin." 

I have only time to call attention in a single illustration to a feature of Dr. 
Joseph Parker's style, which makes it so very fresh and invigorating, and that is his 
habit of thrusting a picture into almost every sentence of a paragraph, often by the 
use of a single happy word. It will be interesting to note how many distinct illustra- 
tions can be discovered in this paragraph commenting on Joseph's journey to meet 
his father, when the old man was coming down to Egypt in the time of famine: 

62. Kindly Daily Deeds — "Yes, I do not care what our duties are, we can add a 
little pathos to them if we like; whatever be our lot we can add a little sentiment to 
our life. And what is life without sentiment? What are the flowers without an oc- 
casional sprinkling of dew? It may be a grand thing to sit on a high-stool and wait 
till the old man comes upstairs. But it is an infinitely grander thing, a 'lordlier chivalry' 
to come off the stool and go away to meet him a mile or two on the road. Your 
home will be a better home — I do not care how poor the cot — if you have a little sen- 
timent in you, a little tenderness and nice feeling. These are things that sweeten life. 
I do not want a man to wait until there is an earthquake in order that he may call 
and say, 'How do you do?' I do not want a man to do earthquakes for me. Sometimes 
I want a chair handed, and a door opened, and a kind pressure of the hand, and a 
gentle word. And as for the earthquakes, why — wait until they come I" 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. 31 

IX. 

ROBERT SOUTH. 

It has been said of Henry Ward Beecher that in his younger ministry he saturated 
himself with the sermons of Robert South, and that he was more greatly indebted 
to him than to any other one source for his splendid diction, and for the free use of 
his imagination in the illustrative treatment of his discourses. One who has read 
largely of Beecher's sermons, and then comes to South's, can well believe that this is 
true, tho my own judgment would be that the pupil, if he were a pupil, has decidedly 
improved on the master. For while South is undeniably a great preacher, and his 
sermons are a rich storehouse for any earnest and intelligent sermonizer, they are by 
no means as brilliant and full of that sort of magnetic interest that absorbs and masters 
the reader as are the sermons of Beecher. 

South is rich in two classes of illustrations. 

I. I will speak first, not because it is most important, of the habit he has of deal- 
ing with historical allusions. He does this very effectively. In a few lines, or some- 
times only by a phrase, he will open a window that will let in a flood of light on his 
theme. Let us look at a few examples. Take this instance where he is speaking of 
the unhappy returns of scholarship and literature in former times. He says of the 
author : 

63. Scholar and Patron — "He numbers no flocks, tells no acres of ground, has 
no variety or change of raiment, and is not solicitous which, but what, he shall put on; 
he never aspires to any purchase, unless perhaps of some dead man's study; at the 
same time buying the relics of another's death and the instruments of his own. Here- 
upon he is put to the worst and the most discouraging of all miseries, which is, to 
be beholden and obliged. For what is Aristotle without his Alexander? Virgil with- 
out Augustus? Horace without Maecenas? And other poets, like their own wreaths 
of ivy, they were always creeping about something for a support. A scholar without 
a patron is insignificant : he must have something to lean upon : he is like an unhappy 
cause, always depending." 

On another occasion he is speaking of the price which the reformer must 
always pay; the certain opposition which any new thing in science, or in life, will 
arouse : 

64. Inventors — "Yet, if a man ventures but out of the old road, and attempts to 
enlarge the borders of philosophy by the introduction of some new method, or the 
discovery of some unheard-of invention, some new phenomena in nature, what a 
tragical outcry is presently raised against him, all the world pecking at him and 
about his ears ! How are Galileo and Copernicus persecuted, and Descartes worried by 
almost every pen !" 

Speaking of the preparation of heart for true worship of God, he uses this classic 
illustration : 

65. Hector's Unwashed Hands — "It was an excellent speech that Homer puts into 
the mouth of Hector, in the Sixth Iliad; and, spoken by a Christian to the true God, 
from a principle of faith, might savor of good divinity. When he comes from the fight, 
and being entreated by his mother to sacrifice to the gods: 'No,' says he, 'I dread 
to sacrifice to the gods with unwashed hands;' how much more should the Christian, 
to the true God, with an unwashed heart; 'for,' says he, 'it is not decent or fitting for 
a warrior, besmeared with blood and dirt, to present his supplication to God.' God has 
declared Himself a jealous God, and will be worshiped in truth; but as long as we 
have holiness in our tongue, and sin in our heart, we worship Him with a lie." 

Speaking of the need of spiritual light and of the peril of spiritual darkness, he 
says: 

66. The Devil's Samson — "As long as thou art destitute of this spiritual light 
and knowledge, thou art to the devil as Samson to the Philistine, without his eyes, thou 



32 GREAT ARCHERS 

must go whither he will lead thee, grind in his mill, and undergo all the slavish drudg- 
ery of sin, that a malicious devil, that hates thy soul, can put thee to." 

Discussing the subject of hypocrisy, this allusion is used: 

"The sum of the hypocrites' creed and hope may be delivered in that of Tacitus; 
they first feign things, then believe them." 

While on the subject of divine Providence he has this: 

"Passengers in a ship always submit to their pilot's discretion, but especially in a 
storm; and shall we, whose passage lies through a greater and more dangerous deep, 
pay a less deference to that great Pilot who not only understands, but also commands, 
the seas?" 

Speaking of our treatment toward one another, he has this striking refer- 
ence: 

67. Thy Brother's Keeper — "It is a sad thing for a man not to be safe in his own 
house, but much more in his own body, the dearer earthly tabernacle of the two. How 
barbarous a thing is it to see a Romulus imbrewing his hands in the blood of his 
brother! And he that kills his neighbor kills his brother, as to common bonds and 
cognation of humanity." 

Talking of shallow devotion that lacks heart, he has this well-turned reference: 

"Lip-devotion signifies but little. Judas could afford our Savior the lip, while 
he was actually betraying Him to his mortal enemies." 

The way the devil fishes for men is strikingly illustrated in this paragraph: 
68. Bent of Sin — "Sin plays the bait before him, the bait of a little, contemptible, 
silly pleasure or profit; but it hides from his view that fatal hook which shall strike 
through his heart and liver, and by which that great catcher and devourer of souls 
shall hold him fast, and drag him down to his eternal execution." 

Discussing the question of heredity, he has this : 

69. National Sin — "Hence we see that those of the same climate are usually 
disposed to the same sin. Whereupon some have presumed to set down the standing 
characters of several nations ; so that the Grecians are false ; the Spaniards formal, 
grave, and proud; the French wordy, fickle, and fantastic; the Italians lustful; the 
English mutinous and insolent to governors. And these characters, if true, seem to 
agree to these several nations, not only for one age, but successively in all genera- 
tions : as waters of a river running in the same channel always retain the same 
color, taste, and breed the same sorts of fish." 

II. The great majority of South's illustrations, however, are Scriptural. His 
favorite method of illustration is to take one Scriptural reference after another bear- 
ing on his subject; and after quoting the Scripture, to comment upon it. He will 
sometimes use from ten to twenty such references in a single sermon. He often does 
this with very great effect. For instance in a sermon on the text, "The hypocrite's 
hopes shall perish," he uses as an illustration the sentence in Job which compares the 
hope of the hypocrite to a spider's web, and he proceeds to turn this over and view it 
from all sides. He sees the analogy: 

70. Hypocrite — "First, in respect of the curious subtilty and the fine artificial com- 
posure of it. The spider, in every web, shows itself an artist : so the hypocrite spins his 
hope with a great deal of art, in a thin, fine thread. This and that good duty, this 
good thought, this opposing of some gross sin, are all interwoven together to the 
making up a covering for his hypocrisy. And as the spider draws all out of its own 
bowels, so the hypocrite weaves all his confidence out of his own inventions and 
imaginations. 

"Secondly, it resembles it in respect of its weakness; it is too fine-spun to be 
strong. After the spider has used all its art and labor in framing a web, yet how 
easily is it broken, how quickly is it swept down ! So after the hypocriite has wrought 
out a hope with much cost, art, and industry, it is yet but a weak, slender, pitiful thing. 
He does indeed by this get some name and room among professors ; he does, as it were, 
hang his hopes upon the beams of God's house. But when God shall come to cleanse 
and, as it, were, to sweep His sanctuary, such cobwebs are sure to be fetched down." 

Referring to the way a man stirs himself up to deeds by letting his imagination 
run riot, he quotes this sentence of David's : "My heart was hot within me, while 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. 33 

I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue." He takes this as an 
illustration for his theme, and comments in the following manner: 

71. Zeal — "We see here the gradation by which this holy man's thoughts led 
his zeal up to its full height. In like manner, when an injury has passed upon a 
man, he begins to muse upon it, and upon this his heart grows hot within him, and 
and at length the fire burns, and then he speaks with his tongue; perhaps railing and 
reviling; and it is well if in the issue he does not also strike with his hand. The 
lion has not always such a present supply of fierceness as to fit him to fly upon his 
prey, till by the echoes of his own roarings, and the frequent striking of himself 
with his train, he has called up his drowsy spirits, and summoned his rage to attend 
his appetite, and so fully_ chafed himself into his natural fury; and then he is a lion 
indeed, and to meet him is death, and to behold him a terror next to it." 

I have only room for a single other reference of this same kind. He is speaking 
of the things that make strife, and in an illustration he quotes the Scripture which 
says : "He that repeateth a matter separateth very friends." And this is his illuminat- 
ing comment : 

72. Slanderers — "The carrying of a tale, and reporting what such an one said or 
such an one did, is the way to sow such grudges, -to kindle such heart-burnings be- 
tween persons, as oftentimes break forth and flame to the consumption of families, 
courts, and, perhaps at length, of cities and kingdoms. The mischief such incendiaries 
do is incredible, as being indeed, for the most part, inevitable. And a vine or a rose- 
tree may as well flourish when there is a secret worm lurking and gnawing at the root 
of them, as the peace of those societies thrive that have such concealed plagues wrapped 
up in their heart and bowels." 



34 GREAT ARCHERS 

X. 

john McNeill. 

I shall never forget one week-day evening, some years ago, when I went into the 
Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, in New York City, commonly known in those 
-days as "Dr. John Hall's Church," to listen to John McNeill. "Thomas" was the 
subject of the sermon. It was over an hour long, and I look back to it as one of the 
most enjoyable hours I have ever known. It was not the sort of eloquence that lifts 
.you up and sends nervous thrills up and down your spinal column, but it had a charm 
and a fascination that were altogether delightful. It brought the Scriptural char- 
acters that enter into that Bible story right into the altar around the pulpit, and you 
saw them as clearly and felt as well acquainted with them as you did with the 
homely, good-humored, shrewd Scotchman who was talking with you. I say talk- 
ing with you, for there was absolutely nothing about it to suggest the conventional 
sermon. He made every man in the audience feel as much at home with him as 
if it were a personal conversation. 

One of John McNeill's characteristics that adds to his power is his art of "saying 
things." He is past-master of that art, never to be despised, of saying a common- 
place thing in a fresh, striking manner. It is very important, and many a prosy 
pulpit would begin to be magnetic and attractive if the preacher would use his head 
in trying to find some unusual manner of presenting a truth which r*ee/.3 to be fre- 
quently emphasized. In the illustrations which follow, I shall have in mind the 
bringing out this peculiar gift of McNeill's, which is well worth our study, and, 
within proper limitations, our imitation. 

McNeill is preaching on the text : "David said in his heart, I shall now perish one 
-day by the hand of Saul." He is discussing the "blues" and the things that get us into 
them. See how sharply he seizes hold of those opening words, "one day": 

73. "Blues" — "There is a wonderful vagueness after all in this threatening, 
'I shall now perish one day.' Oh, the meanness of the devil ! 'One day.' If he would 

just come and tell me explicitly what day it is, and let me know the worst, and get 
ready for the funeral, and serve notices upon my friends that they may be there! 
But he says, 'One day,' 'Some day.' It is coming, it is coming. 'I will blot you 
out. I will destroy you. Some of these days I will be around. Don't you say "cheap" 
to either God or man. I am at the door, and I will have your blood some of these 
outings.' When, O devil? When, O world? When, O flesh? Tell us when it is to 
be. Give us the day and the date. I am a busy man myself, and my book gets very 
rapidly filled up with engagements, but really, this is an engagement I would like to 
attend. Tell us precisely when it is to be, that we may enter it in our book, and be 
sure to be there. Name the day! That is how to get at the devil of unbelief. He 
never can name the day. He is a big, blustering bravado and bully, forever talking 
big, vague threats, but you always find him out when you come to particulars." 
Speaking of the proper view for us to take of the past, he says : 

74. Yesterday's honey — "It is to-day that you are living. You have nothing to 
do with yesterday except to extract comfort from it. 'Out of the eater comes forth 
meat, and out of the strong comes forth sweetness.' Your yesterdays are like Sam- 
son's rent lion. Your yesterdays are turned into bare, white carcasses filled with 
honey. Fill your hands with honey and go On eating to-day." 

Note this little paragraph as an example of a style that never can lose its interest : 

75. Trust — "My last word is, trust in God. Our fears are liars ; our hopes are 
stars that stud the sky till the day dawn, and heaven's morning breaks." 

Here is an illustration in which imagination and a tender heart work together to 
«iake the truth clear and melt the heart of an audience: 

76. Lifter-up — "I like that expression, 'Lifter-up of my head.' I know it means 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. 3£ 

to restore to honor; but it means this also. There is your child, my good mother, 
and your child has been bad, and you have chastised him. You have put the poor 
little bundle of wretchedness and crossness into a corner, and there it is standing, 
soiling all its face with hot and scalding tears. Then your heart relents ; the extreme 
of misery tells upon you, for you are its mother, and blood is thicker than water. 
And you come toward the little thing, and, as you come nearer and nearer, the farther 
it creeps in the corner, and the lower it hangs its head. And what do you do? In- 
stead of chastising it any more, you come quite close, and with one hand on the little 
one's shoulder, you put the other hand below its chin, and, literally you lift up the 
little face into the light of your own, and stoop down and kiss it. Did you ever think 
that that is what God wants to do with the poor weary sinner who has gone back and 
done shamefully?" 

Talking about God's preserving us in the midst of trouble, he utters these striking 
sentences : 

77. Toothless Tigers — "All your troubles will become toothless tigers to you. God 
will take the teeth out of them, the life out of them, the fangs out of them, the stings 
out of them." 

Preaching on Ezekiel's valley of dry bones, and applying it to the spiritual con- 
dition of the church, he says : 

78. "A Bonny Corpse" — "It reminds me of a memory as far back as I can go, the 
first time that I was ever in the chamber of death, when I heard the old gossips- 
slipping through the room, whispering to each other, 'Did you ever see such a bonny 
corpse!' Ay, some people can see beauty even in a corpse. With us, I am afraid, 
spiritually, it contents us if only we get you there in your ranked rows, if only we 
can use you to a certain extent, altho it may need no single throb or pulse of real 
spiritual life. God help us, we are content, and we begin to talk about success, and 
achievement, and being triumphant. Not so Ezekiel. He says — and we can almost 
see him shake his head, and you can almost see him stop prophesying as he says, 
'But there is no breath in them.' " 

Discussing the help it is for us to work with the consciousness that we are in 
the presence of God, he illustrates with an incident from his old railroad days. He 
says : 

79. Superintendent's Eye — "Shortly after I came on duty, one raw, bitter morn- 
ing, at a ticket-collecting station, a heavy special train came in. The engine-driver 
jerked his thumb mysteriously over his shoulder as he drifted past, and the front 
guard, jumping off, said, 'Now, lads, look alive, the superintendent's aboard!' Ah f 
what an electric shock that gave us all. For to us, at that distant station he was 
only a name. And now our work must be done under his very eye ! For there he 
was, 'the great unknown' actually out on our platform." 

Preaching on the text, "What aileth thee, Hagar?" he gives this striking para- 
graph on the personal thought of God about us as individuals: 

80. God Knows Our Names — "I can not get over that — that my name is known, 
your name. Where is your name, and number, and street, and address? The post- 
man could not find it. Your friends have been writing to you for weeks, some of 
them for years, and they can not nderstand what is the matter, for there is no finding 
you. When you get lost in London you can not be found ; the letters are returned to 
the Dead-Letter Office, scribbled over with all manner of 'Try this,' 'try that,' 'try 
the other place,' for there are a dozen streets of that name in London, and ycu can 
not be found in any of them. But what a gleam of hope in the darkness and loneliness 
of this howling wilderness, the angel of God calling out of heaven, naming you by 
name, sending a message that reaches your own very ear, and speaks into your own 
desolate heart. It is for you." 

He is speaking about the importance of keeping the memory clean and pure for 
the comfort and help it shall be to us, when he uses this striking illustration : 

81. Divers into the Past — "Oh for a holy memory! We need to use memory as the 
diver uses the diving-bell. There is a vessel which has gone down beneath the 
sea, but not in such depths that it can not be reached. And the divers come; they 
go down into the dark, sullen waters to that vessel, and they explore the hold, and 
fill the chains with whatever they can pile into them, and those overhead draw 
them up. Have you ever been there? It is a strange experience to be on board a 



30 GREAT ARCHERS 

pontoon where the divers are working. The diver comes with all his peculiar dress; 
he steps on to a ladder and away down he goes completely out of sight. And I can 
not express how your flesh begins to creep as there comes up there from the deep, 
from the mysterious, from the hidden, from the unknown, up there comes from his 
hand, working away down there in the depths, treasures which were sunken, hidden, in 
one sense lost, in the hold of that sunken vessel. And you remember what the diver 
needs, that those up above should continually send down to him currents and streams 
of fresh air. Ah, let me not recklessly ask you to remember. Do not go down into 
the diving-bell of memory unless you are in continual communication with the fresh 
air of God's grace and mercy. For there is danger down there ; there are slimy things 
away down there in the depths, bad, mephitic odors. It is quite safe, it is grand, it is 
helpful, if you go down carrying the upper world with you — the love of God ind the 
in-dwelling of the Holy Ghost." 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. tf 



XL 

HUGH MACMILLAN. 

Among all the popular ipreachers of our own time whose sermons are having wide 
reading, there is not one who presents the Gospel with more plainness and simplicity 
than Hugh Macmillan. Any intelligent child of ten years old, brought up in a Christian 
home, would be interested in, thoroughly understand, and enjoy his sermons. I do not 
recall any preacher, of any age, who has drawn so largely on nature studies to give 
the spice and zest, as well as the illustrations, for his sermons. Of course he has great 
warrant for this in the preaching of Him "who spake as never man spake." The 
birds, and the flowers, and the green grass, and the plowed fields, and the white 
harvests, as well as the fishing-boats and nets, the fish themselves, and all the panorama 
of hill and valley, of forest and field, of sea and sky, furnished illustrations for the 
first great Christian preacher. 

Hugh Macmillan has followed this vein of nature-study with great success, and 
his work is suggestive for all of us. One might print a volume of these illustrations, 
instead of a chapter, but I can select only here and there from this sermonic garden. 

Preaching on the text, "Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?" 
where he has raised the point that we often pray for things that would harm us, he 
tells this story: 

82. Praying for Thistles — "There was an old Scotchman of the name of Sandy 
McKay, settled for many years in one of the western parts of Australia. Altho having 
been so long away from his native land, he still cherished an ardent love for it that 
seemed to grow stronger as he grew older. He thought he would die happy if he 
could see once more a real living Scotch thistle to remind him of the fields in which he 
used to herd the cattle when he was a boy, and of which he was always dreaming. He 
sent home for the seed and sowed it carefully and lovingly in his garden plot. It 
took kindly to the soil, and great was Sandy's joy to watch its growth till it produced 
its purple plume and down head. Proud thoughts of his country's symbol filled his 
mind. But alas! the downy seeds were carried far and near by the wind, and propa- 
gated themselves to such an extent that the plant became a greater pest in the 
Southern hemisphere than it had been in the Northern! It got the name of 'Sandy 
McKay's Curse/ And so how often do we pray for things, and long as ardently for 
them as the Scotchman longed for his national symbol in his exile, and when we get 
them they prove moral thistles that become a curse to ourselves and others!" 

Any one desiring to follow Macmillan's example of using illustrations from nature 
will do well to take note of the care which he is at to know accurately the truth con- 
cerning what he undertakes to describe. Nothing can be more fatal to the preacher 
than to be careless about his facts in the use of illustrations from nature. Macmillan is 
preaching on God's care for the ravens, and His feeding them, and he discusses the 
necessity of this as follows : 

83. God's Care for Ravens — "Many birds depend on the harvests of man. They 
may be said to sow and reap with the farmer, and are fed regularly as he is fed. Other 
birds have storehouses and barns. . . . The red-headed woodpecker of America con- 
ceals grasshoppers in cracks in old posts, laying them up in this manner for future 
supply. The Californian woodpecker stores acorns in decayed cavities in the trunks 
of oaks, and afterward feeds upon the grubs which grow in the seed. > The butcher-bird 
has got that name because it sticks the little birds— which it makes its prey— upon the 
thorns of a prickly bush, to serve as a larder till it is hungry enough to require them. 
But the ravens have no such storehouses or barns. They can lay up nothing. Their 
food is a chance thing. And yet God feedeth them, in spite of their long fasts and the 
accidental, irregular nature of their food— feedeth them for^ a hundred years. It may 
be in this precarious and yet sure fashion; for the raven lives longer than man, and 
longer than any other bird. It has its own place to fill, and its own purpose to serve 
in God's world. . . . God feeds the ravens tho they are unclean birds, for He has a 



38 GREAT ARCHERS 

purpose to serve by them in nature ; so God will feed you tho you are sinners, ungrate- 
ful, forgetful of the hand that is feeding you, unworthy of the least of God's mercies, for 
you have a great purpose to serve in God's world." 

Preaching a sermon on the text, "Who mind earthly things," in which he is urging 
upon his hearers the necessity of the upward look, he uses this illustration : 

84. Looking Earthward — "The ancient Greeks had a curious fable about a bird 
called merops. It was a kind of eagle, but when it mounted upward, its head was 
turned to the earth and its tail to the sky. The Greek poets say that it was originally 
a man called Merops, King of Cos, an island in the ^Egean Sea; his wife was one of 
the nymphs or attendants of Diana, and failing one day to pay the usual homage to her 
divine mistress, the wrathful goddess slew her. Her husband, who was devotedly 
attached to her, was filled with the deepest grief, and wished to kill himself in order 
that he might rejoin his wife in the world of shades, but the Queen of Heaven changed 
him into an eagle and placed him among the stars. The loving husband, notwithstand- 
ing this great change that had taken place in him, could not tear himself away from 
the familiar earth where his beloved wife was buried; and therefore, as he mounted 
upward to the stars, he kept ever looking down to the earth. The Greeks used this 
wise old fable as a symbol of persons who wished to get to heaven without foregoing 
all the good things of this world. There are many persons in our churches who are 
like that strange, fabulous bird, flying upward to heaven on the wings of their hopes, 
while their desires are ever turned toward the earth where their possessions are." 

Discussing the way earthly things sometimes destroy the spiritual life, he brings 
out this singular and interesting illustration: 

85. Higher and Lower Nature — "I have seen a bee with a fungus or mold growing 
out of its body. The seeds of this mold got into the open breathing-pores on the breast 
of the poor bee, and they grew up into a low kind of plant which fed upon its juices, 
hindered its flying in the air, and at last made it crawl upon the ground and die, and its 
body was filled with this strange mold. Thus, you see a remarkable example of animal 
life being conquered by vegetable life. ... So the lower nature, when it gets the better 
of the higher, makes it its slave and compels it to do its bidding, until the degrading 
bondage becomes so irksome that one would give everything in the world to throw it 
off." 

Seeking to explain how God helps a man to rule his own spirit, retaining his per- 
sonal freedom, and yet dependent upon divine help, he tells this homely little story : 

86. Perfect in Weakness — "I remember when sailing one day in a steamer, the 
captain's son, a bright little fellow of five or six years of age, was on board, and wanted 
to take the place of the man at the helm. The good-natured steersman, to humor him, 
put the spoke of the wheel into his little hand, which was hardly able to grasp it. But 
he was careful at the same time to put his own big hand on the child's tiny fingers, and 
took a firm hold, and moved the wheel in the right direction, and the boy was in high 
glee, imagining that he himself was steering the huge steamer. Now, so God deals 
with you. He puts His almighty hand on your feeble hand when you are ruling your 
own spirit, and makes His strength perfect in your weakness." 

Illustrating the strength that comes to us when through God's help we overcome 
temptation, he says: 

"It is an Eastern proverb that the strength of the foe we slay passes into ourself. 
When a man slays a tiger and eats its flesh, he is supposed to inherit the fierceness anc¥ 
courage of the wild beast. The principle is doubtless true in the moral world; for 
whatever sin or lust you slay, the strength passes into your own nature, and helps you 
to overcome a similar sin or lust when it assails you." 

In a sermon on "Satan's Wiles" he has this brilliant illustration : 

87. Satan's Deceit— V'There is a kind of lizard which lives in the sandy deserts of 
Arabia. Its body is so like the sand that it can not be distinguished from it at a little 
distance ; but it has on each side of its mouth a fold or skin of a very light crimson 
color^ which the creature can blow out into the form of a round blossom, and in this 
state it looks exactly like a little red flower which grows abundantly in the sands. In- 
sects are attracted to this curious object, mistaking it for a real flower that has honey 
•in it for them, and they approach the mouth of the lizard without fear, when they are 
immediately snapped up. There is also an insect common in India which feeds upon 
other insects, and in order to catch them, puts on,' like the lizard I have described, the 
appearance of the flower of an orchid. Its legs are made flatter and broader than those 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. 3g 

of any other insect; they are colored a beautiful pink hue, and they ray out from the 
body of the insect exactly like the petals of a beautiful flower. Insects are deceived 
by this wonderful likeness to the blossoms which they frequent for the sake of their 
honey, and they come here without suspicion and are immediately caught by their 
treacherous foe. Now, this is the way in which my text tells us that Satan deceives 
those whom he wishes to tempt to their ruin." 



40 GREAT ARCHERS 



XII. 
FREDERICK W. ROBERTSON. 

Among intelligent, well-read preachers no name is more highly honored in all the 
English-speaking world than that of Robertson, of Brighton. And yet Robertson was 
by no means widely known while he lived. Greatly loved and honored and admired by 
the people to whom he preached, little was known of him by the world beyond. But a 
single sermon was published during his whola life, and he left behind him perhaps not 
one sermon that was written out in full. He did not write his sermons before they 
were delivered. It was his practice to prepare them carefully without writing, and 
then after he preached them to make notes of them, and sometimes to write them out 
quite fully for the comfort or pleasure of friends who desired them. The volumes that 
have been printed since his death have been made up of these fragments. But what 
fragments they are! They have found their way to the ends of the earth because of 
the originality, the humanness, and sanity of them. One does not need always to agree 
with their theology to appreciate the immense value they have been to the ministerial 
world. 

It will be interesting to glance at some illustrative examples from Robertson's 
sermons. Speaking of the limitation of words as a channel for the conveyance of 
truth, he says: 

88. Words are Coins — "Words are but counters — the coins of intellectual exchange. 
There is as little resemblance between the silver coin and the bread it purchases as 
between the word and the thing it stands for. Looking at the coin, the form of the 
loaf does net suggest itself. Listening to the word, you do not perceive the idea for 
which it stands, unless you are already in possession of it. Speak of ice to an inhabi- 
tant of the torrid zone, the word does not give him an idea; or, if it does, it must be a 
false one. Talk of blueness to one who can not distinguish colors, what can your most 
eloquent description present to him resembling the truth of your sensation? Similarly 
in matters spiritual, no verbal revelation can give a single simple idea. For instance, 
what means justice to the unjust — or purity to the man whose heart is steeped in licen- 
tiousness ?" 

Illustrating the danger that the cares and riches of the world will smother the spir- 
itual life, he puts it in this way: 

89. Giant under a Mountain — "Many such a Christian do you find among the rich 
and the titled who, as a less encumbered man, might have been a resolute soldier of the 
Cross ; but he is only now a realization of the old pagan fable — a spiritual giant buried 
under a mountain of gold." 

Speaking of meditation and seeking to show that it is not only a passive but also 
an active state, he uses this striking illustration: 

90. Meditation — "Whoever has pondered long over a plan which he is anxious to 
accomplish, without distinctly seeing at first the way, knows what meditation is. The 
subject itself presents itself in leisure moments spontaneously; but then all this sets the 
mind at work — contriving, imagining, rejecting, modifying. It is in this way that one 
of the greatest of English engineers, a man uncouth and unaccustomed to regular dis- 
cipline of mind, is said to have accomplished his most marvelous triumphs. He threw 
bridges over almost impracticable torrents, and pierced the eternal mountains for his 
viaducts. Sometimes a difficulty brought all the work to a pause; then he would shut 
himself up in his room, eat nothing, speak to no one, abandon himself intensely to con- 
templation of that on which his heart was set; and at the end of two or three days 
would come forth serene and calm, walk to the spot, and quietly give orders which 
seemed the result of superhuman intuition. This was meditation." 

Speaking of the personal path over which every sincere soul must travel in pursu- 
ing the Christian life, meeting obstacles that will seem new to him alone, he illustrates 
after this manner: 

91. Obstacles to Christian Life^ "We have heard of the pursuit of knowledge under 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. 41 

difficulties. The shepherd, with no apparatus besides his thread and beads, has lain on 
his back on the starry night and mapped the heavens, and unconsciously become a dis- 
tinguished astronomer. The peasant-boy, with no tools but his rude knife and a visit 
now and then to the neighboring town, has begun his scientific education by producing 
a watch that would mark the time. The blind man, trampling upon impossibilities, has 
explored the economy of the bee-hive, and, more wondrous still, lectured on the laws 
of light. The timid stammerer, with pebbles in his mouth and the roar of the sea-surge 
in his ears, has attained correctest elocution, and swayed as one man the changeful 
tides of the mighty masses of Athenian democracy. All these were expedients. It is 
thus in the life religious. No man ever trod exactly the path that others trod before 
him." 

Explaining the meaning of imputed guilt, he illustrates as follows: 

92. Breaking Laws — "If, for example, you approach too near the whirling wheel of 
steam machinery, the mutilation which follows is the punishment of temerity. If the 
traveler ignorantly lays his hand on the cockatrice's den, the throb of the envenomed 
fang is the punishment of his ignorance. He has broken a law of nature, and the guilt 
of the infection is imputed to him ; there is penalty, but there is none of the chastise- 
ment which follows sin. His conscience is not made miserable. He only suffers." 

Illustrating the positive character of human nature and the impossibility of living 
a neutral life, he uses this figure: 

93. Energy Controlled — "You can not give the pent-up steam its choice of moving 
or not moving. It must move one way or the other ; the right way or the wrong way. 
Direct it rightly, and its energy rolls the engine-wheels smoothly on their track ; block 
up its passage, and it bounds away, a thing of madness and ruin. Stop it you can not ; 
it will rather burst. So it is with our hearts. There is a pent-up energy of love, 
gigantic for good or evil. Its right way is in the direction of our Eternal Father ; and 
then, let it boil and pant as it will, the course of the man is smooth. Dispel the love of 
God from the bosom — what then? Will the passion that is within cease to burn? Nay." 

•Discussing the danger of the soul's being lost, he brings out very clearly that the 
highest things are in more danger of loss than those that are of less importance. He 
says: 

94. Light that Leads Astray — "Be sure that it is by that which is highest in you that 
you may be lost. It is the awful warning, and not the excuse of evil, that the light 
which leads atsray is light from heaven. The shallow fishing-boat glides safely over 
the reefs where the noble bark strands; it is the very might and majesty of her career 
that bury the sharp rock deeper in her bosom." 

Speaking of Christ as man's Savior from the wreck and ruin in which sin had left 
him, he paints this picture: 

95. Christ and Humanity — "Not half a century ago a great man was seen stopping 
and working in a charnel-house of bones. Uncouth, nameless fragments lay around 
him, which the workmen had dug up and thrown aside as rubbish. They belonged to 
some far-back age, and no man knew what they were or whence. Few men cared. 
The world was merry at the sight of a philosopher groping among moldy bones. But 
when the creative mind, reverently discerning the fontal types of living beings in diverse 
shapes, brought together those strange fragments, bone to bone, and rib to claw, and 
tooth to its own corresponding vertebrae, recombining in wondrous forms of past ages, 
and presenting each to the astonished world as it moved and lived a hundred thousand 
ages back, then men began to perceive that a new science had begun on earth. And 
such was the work of Christ. They saw Him at work among the fragments and mol- 
dering wreck of our humanity, and sneered. But He took the dry bones such as Ezekiel 
saw in a vision, which no man thought could live, and He breathed into them the 
breath of life." . 

Illustrating the conflagration caused by an evil tongue, he declares : 

96. Words Like Fire— "It is like the Greek fire used in ancient warfare, which 
burnt unquenched beneath the water, or like the weeds which, when you have extir- 
pated in one place are sprouting forth vigorously in another spot, at the distance of 
many hundred yards ; or, to use the metaphor of St. James himself, it is like the wheel 
which catches fire as it goes, and burns with a fiercer conflagration as its own speed 
increases. . . . You may tame the wild beast, the conflagration of the American forest 
will cease when all the timber and dry underwood is consumed ; but you can not arrest 
the progress of that cruel word which you uttered carelessly yesterday or this morning 
— which you will utter, perhaps, before you have passed from thif. church one hundred 



42 GREAT ARCHERS 

yards; that will go on slaying, poisoning, burning beyond your control, now and for- 
ever." 

Presenting Christ as the perfect flowering of humanity, he uses this beautiful illus- 
tration : 

97. Perfect Humanity — "He who has never seen the vegetable world except in 
Arctic regions has but a poor idea of the majesty of vegetable life — a microscopic red 
moss tinting the surface of the snow, a few stunted pines, and here and there, perhaps, 
a dwindled oak; but to the botanist who has seen the luxuriance of vegetation in its 
tropical magnificence, all that wretched scene presents another aspect ; to him those 
dwarfs are the representatives of what might be, nay, what has been in a kindlier soil 
and a more genial climate ; he fills up by his conception the miserable actuality presented 
by these shrubs, and attributes to them — imputes, that is, to them — the majesty of which 
the undeveloped germ exists already. Now the difference between those trees seen in 
themselves and seen in the conception of their nature's perfectness which has been 
previously realized, is the difference between man seen in himself and seen in Christ. 
We are feeble, dwarfish, stunted specimens of humanity. Our best resolves are but 
withered branches, our holiest deeds unripe and blighted fruit; but to the Infinite Eye, 
who sees in the perfect One the type and assurance of that which shall be, this dwindled 
humanity of ours is divine and glorious." 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. 43 



XIII. 
THOMAS CHALMERS. 

Chalmers was one of the greatest preachers of his own or indeed of any age. His 
style, tho stately, is permeated by an all-consuming passion which defies the years to 
quench. While his sermons do not abound in illustrations of the more usual variety, 
they are constantly illustrated in a manner all his own. We can select from the vast 
storehouse of his printed works only here and there a sample of these luminous illus- 
trations of his thought. 

Speaking of the utter uselessness of an orthodox creed without spiritual vitality, 
he says : 

_ 98. Lifeless Creed — "The man's creed, with all its arranged and its well-weighed 
articles, may be no better than the dry bones in the vision of Ezekiel, put together into 
a skeleton and fastened with sinews and covered with flesh and skin, and exhibiting to 
the eye of the spectators the aspect and the lineaments of a man, but without breath, 
and remaining so till the Spirit of God breathed into it and it lived. And it is in truth 
a sight of wonder to behold a man who has carried his knowledge of Scripture as far 
as the wisdom_of man can carry it — to see him blessed with all the light which nature 
can give, but laboring under all the darkness which no power of nature can dispel — to 
see this man of many accomplishments, who can bring his every power of demonstra- 
tion to bear upon the Bible, carrying in his bosom a heart uncheered by any one of its 
consolations." 

The next quotation which I shall make is typical of a large number of paragraphs 
in Chalmers's sermons. It presents before the hearer a supposed case. It is based on 
observation and experience, but the personal circumstances are withheld and it is put 
before the hearers as a supposition. He is illustrating the fact that men of the world, 
who resent the faithfulness of earnest preachers of the Gospel during the days of their 
strength and pride, desire just such men and just such a Gospel in the hour of their 
emergency. He says : 

99. Gospel in Emergency — "Let us assure them that the time may yet come when 
they will render to this very Gospel the most striking of all acknowledgments, even by 
sending to the door of its most faithful ministers and humbly craving from them their 
explanations and their prayers. It indeed offers an affecting contrast. To all the glory 
of earthly prospects, and to all the vigor of confident and rejoicing health, and to all 
the activity and enterprise of business, when the man who made the world his theater, 
and felt his mountain to stand strong on the fleeting foundation of its enjoyments and 
its concerns — when he comes to be bowed down with infirmity, or receives from the 
trouble within the solemn intimation that death is now looking to him in good earnest : 
when such a man takes him to the bed of sickness, and he knows it to be a sickness 
unto death — when, under all the weight of breathlessness and pain, he listens to the 
man of God as he points the way that leadeth to eternity — what, I would ask, is the 
kind of Gospel that is most fitted to charm the sense of guilt and the anticipations of 
vengeance away from him?" 

A favorite method of Chalmers is to incarnate Scripture teaching and cause the 
doctrines or truths of the Bible to attain the interest of personality in discussion. In a 
sermon in which he is emphasizing the radical difference between right and wrong, 
he says : 

100. Bible Contrasts — "The Bible everywhere groups the individuals of our species 
into two general and distinct classes, and assigns to each of them its appropriate desig- 
nation. It tells us of the vessels of wrath and of the vessels of mercy ; of the travelers 
on a narrow path and on a broad way; of the children of this world and the children 
of light; and, lastly, of men who are carnally minded and men who are spiritually 
minded. It employs these terms in a meaning so extensive that by each couplet of them 
it embraces all individuals. There is no separate number of persons, forming of them- 
selves a neutral class and standing without the limits of the two others. And were jt 
possible to conceive that human nature as it exists at present in the world were laid in 
a map before us, you would see no intermediate ground between the two classes which 



44 GREAT ARCHERS 

are thus contrasted in the Bible — but these thrown into two distinct regions, with one 
clear and vigorous line of demarkation between them." 

When occasionally Dr. Chalmers bursts forth into descriptions of nature, his elo- 
quence is something magnificent. Let this paragraph suffice: 

101. All Nature Glad — "Let us conceive it possible for a moment that the beautiful 
personifications of Scripture were all realized; that the trees in the forest clap their 
hands unto God, and the isles were glad at His presence ; that the little hills shouted on 
every side, and that the valleys covered ever with corn sent forth their notes of rejoicing; 
that the sun and the moon praised Him, and the stars of light joined in the solemn 
adoration; that the voice of glory to God was heard from every mountain and from 
every waterfall; and that all nature, animated throughout by the consciousness of a 
pervading and presiding Deity, burst into one loud and universal song of gratulation. 
Would not a strain of greater loftiness be heard to ascend from those regions where the 
all- working God had left the traces of His own immensity, than from the tamer and 
humbler scenery of an ordinary landscape; would not you look for a gladder acclama- 
tion from the fertile field than from the arid waste where no character of grandeur 
made up for the barrenness that was around you? Would not the goodly tree, com- 
passed about with the glories of its summer foliage, lift up an anthem of louder grati- 
tude than the lowly shrub that grew beneath it? Would not the flower from whose 
leaves every hue of loveliness was reflected send forth a sweeter rapture than the russet 
weed which never drew the eye of any admiring passenger? And, in a word, wherever 
you saw the towering evidences of nature or the garniture of her more rich and beaute- 
ous adornments, would it not be there that you looked for the deepest tones of devo- 
tion, or there for the tenderest and most exquisite of its melodies?" 

In a sermon on the "Mercantile Virtues," he has this paragraph : 

102. Godliness in Business. — "A man may possess to a considerable extent the 
second-class virtues, and not possess so much as one iota of the religious principle; 
and that, among other reasons, because a man may feel the value for one of the attri- 
butes which belongs to this class of virtues, and have no value whatever for the other 
attributes. If justice be both approved by God and acceptable to men, he may on the 
latter property alone be induced to the strictest maintenance of this virtue — and that 
without suffering its former property to have any practical influence whatever on any 
of his habits or any of his determinations, and the same with every other virtue belong- 
ing to this second class. As residing in his character, there may not be the ingredient 
of godliness in any one of them. He may be well reported on account of them by men, 
but with God he may lie under as fearful a severity of reckoning as if he wanted them 
altogether." 

In a remarkable sermon on the sayings of Jesus, "He that is faithful in that which 
is least, is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in 
much," he has this striking and illuminating paragraph : 

103. Small and Great Sins — "Man is ever prone to estimate the enormity of injus- 
tice by the degree in which he suffers from it. He brings this moral question to the 
standard of his own interests. A master will bear with all the lesser liberties of his 
servants so long as he feels them to be harmless; and it is not till he is awakened to 
the apprehensions of personal injury from the amount or frequency of the embezzle- 
ments that his moral indignation is at all sensibly awakened. And thus it is that the 
maxim of our Great Teacher -of Righteousness seems to be very much unfelt or for- 
gotten in society. Unfaithfulness in that which is little and unfaithfulness in that 
which is much are very far from being regarded as they were by him under the same 
aspect of criminality. If there be no great hurt, it is felt that there is no great harm. 
The innocence, of a dishonest freedom in respect of morality is rated by its insignifi- 
cance in respect of matter. The margin which separates the right from the wrong 
is remorselessly trodden under foot, so long as each makes only a minute and gentle 
encroachment beyond the landmark of his neighbor's territory. On this subject there 
is a loose and popular estimate, which is not at one with the deliverance in the New 
Testament." 

In a sermon on the "Love of Money," man as a trustee and as dependent upon 
God is clearly portrayed in this illustration: 

104. Money a Reservoir — "A sum of money is, in all its functions, equivalent to a 
reservoir. Take one year with another, and the annual consumption of the world can 
not exceed the annual produce which issues from .the storehouse of Him who is the 
great and bountiful Provider of all its families. The money that is in any man's pos- 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. 45 

session represents the share which he can appropriate to himself of this produce. If it 
be a large sum, it is like a capacious reservoir on the bank of the river of abundance. 
If it be laid out on firm and stable securities, still it is like a firmly embanked reser- 
voir. The man who toils to increase his money is like a man who toils to enlarge the 
capacity of his reservoir. The man who suspects a flaw in his securities, or who appre- 
hends, in the report of failures and fluctuations, that his money is all to flow away from 
him, is like a man who apprehends a flaw in the embankments of his reservoir. 

"Meanwhile, in all the care that is thus expended, either on the money or on the 
magazine, the originating source, out of which there is imparted to the one all its real 
worth, or there is imparted to the other all its real fulness, is scarcely ever thought of. 
Let God turn the earth into a barren desert, and the money ceases to be convertible 
to any purpose of enjoyment; or let Him lock up that magazine of great and general 
supply, out of which He showers abundance among our habitations, and all the subor- 
dinate magazines formed beside the wonted stream of liberality would remain empty; 
but all this is forgotten by the vast majority of our unthoughtful and unreflecting 
species." 



46 GREAT ARCHERS 



XIV. 

WILLIAM L. WATKINSON. 

Among living English preachers there are few if any more interesting than the 
Rev. Dr. W. L. Watkinson, the honored ex-president of the British Wesleyan Con- 
ference. His sermons bring out the very core of the Gospel, are eminently sane, and 
liis illustrative power enables him to let in the sunlight on the most obscure truths. 
Dr. Watkinson is a very witty man, and his wit comes out not only in his sermons 
and public addresses but in his conversation as well. A little while before his election 
.as president of the Wesleyan Conference, some of his friends told him that the advo- 
cates of another candidate for the position were making capital out of Watkinson's 
delicate health. "They say," said his friend, "Watkinson is too feeble to be president. 
Why, he has one foot in the grave already!" A dry smile illuminated the pale face 
of the coming president, as he remarked, "It is the other foot that they are afraid of." 
He served his presidency with distinguished honor, and still lives to preach his brilliant 
and powerful sermons. 

Dr. Watkinson's illustrative gift, always great, has been constantly developed until 
he has few peers in the handling of sermonic illustrations. Of course the great secret 
in the art of illustration is the power to seize hold on common things with which every- 
body is familiar and make them in some fresh, new way, illustrate spiritual truths. 
Watkinson has this power in a remarkable degree. Legend, pictures, histories, books 
of travel, the commonest facts of e very-day experience all furnish him illustrative win- 
dows for his sermons. 

Speaking of the origin of sin, he presents it in this way : 

105. Origin of Sin — "The South Sea Islanders have a singular tradition to account 
for the existence of the dew. The legend relates that in the beginning the earth touched 
the sky, that being the Golden Age when all was beautiful and glad ; then some dreadful 
tragedy occurred, the primal unity was broken up, the earth and sky were torn asunder 
as we see them now, and the dew-drops of the morning are the tears that nature sheds 
over the sad divorce. This wild fable is a metaphor of the truth; the beginning of all 
evil lies in the_ alienation of the spirit of man from God, in the divorce of earth from 
heaven ; here is the final reason why the face of humanity is wet with tears." 

Discussing the fact that suffering is a part of the lot of humanity and must sooner 
or later be recognized, he remarks : 

106. Suffering Shut Out — "There is no screen to shut off permanently the spectacle 
of suffering. When Marie Antoinette passed to her bridal in Paris, the halt, the lame, 
and the blind were sedulously kept out of her way, lest their appearance should mar 
the joyousness of her reception ; but ere long, the poor Queen had a very close view 
•of Misery's children, and she drank to the dregs the cup of life's bitterness." 

Illustrating the power of the Gospel to save, he seizes hold of this little bit of art 
criticism to make clear his meaning : 

107. Artist of Pain — "The critics declare that Rubens had an absolute delight in 
lepresenting pain, and they refer us to that artist's picture of the 'Brazen Serpent' in 
the National Gallery. The canvas is full of the pain, the fever, the contortions of the 
wounded and dying; the writhing, gasping crowd is everything, and the supreme in- 
strument of cure, the brazen serpent itself, is small and obscure, no conspicuous feature 
whatever of the picture. The manner of the great artist is so far out of keeping with 
the spirit of the Gospel. Revelation brings out broadly and impressively the darkness 
of the world, the malady of life, the terror of death, only that it may evermore make 
conspicuous the. uplifted Cross, which, once seen, is death to every vice, a consolation 
in every sorrow, a victory over every fear." 

Speaking of the necessity for a radical change of heart, in order to produce pure 
life, he has this: 

ic3. Pure in Heart — "But if we are to bless men effectually, we must get to the 



AND THEIR WEAPONS. aj 

fountain-head of their sorrows— the thought and imagination of their heart. As Jeremy 
Taylor says, 'You can not cure the colic by brushing a man's clothes.' No bettering of 
the lot of the individual will necessarily make his spirit sweet, contented, pure. Neither 
will the propitious environment make the virtuous and happy community. Eden, 
Sodom, Canaan, proved this in the old world, and there are plenty of proofs of it in 
the modern world." 

Commenting on that catalog of evil things which Christ enumerates as dwelling 
in a sinful heart, Wtakinson uses this strong illustration: 

109. Birds and Emotion — "An American naturalist tells us that the human brain 
is full of birds. The song-birds might all have been hatched in the human heart, so 
well do they express the whole gamut of human passion and emotion in their varied 
songs. The plaintive singers, the soaring, ecstatic singers, the gushing singers, the in- 
articulate singers — robin, dove, lark, thrush, mocking-bird, nightingale — all are expres- 
sive of human emotions, desire, love, sadness, aspirations, glee. Very beautiful, indeed, 
is it to find our brain full of sweet minstrels of the air ; but. alas ! Christ gives a sadder 
view of our heart, showing it to be 'the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every 
unclean and hateful bird.' Fierce hawk, croaking raven, ravenous vulture, obscene 
birds, birds of discord, birds of darkness, birds of tempest, birds of blood and death — 
these are all typical of the heart's base passions ; these all brood and nestle within, and 
fly forth to darken and pollute and destroy." 

There follow six brief illustrations, all found in one sermon, one of the greatest 
sermons of modern times, on "The Transformation of Evil," the text being, "For Satan 
himself is transformed into an angel of light." These are by no means all the illustra- 
tions in this sermon, but any man with the homiletic instinct in him will at once see 
how a half-dozen illustrations like these in a single discourse would illuminate it. In 
the introduction we have this : 

no. Glamor of Vice — "We shrink from the gorilla, the tiger, the wolf, the croco- 
dile, the rattlesnake, the shark, the scorpion, the centipede, the hornet, the leech, the 
vulture — we are afraid of these creatures of loathsomeness and blood ; and in a very 
similar way we shrink from the vices undisguised. But just as the Oriental supersti- 
tiously invests destructive beasts with a certain glamor, refusing to destroy the tiger, 
respecting the vulture as sacred, decorating the crocodile with jewels, consecrating 
shrines for serpents ; so the vices attain a certain glamor in our eyes, becoming posi- 
tively lovely, sacred, angelic." 

Proceeding to show how evil is transfigured by imagination, he illustrates after 
this manner: 

in. Disguised Sin — "How artfully intemperance has been metamorphosed into 
shapes actually delightful to contemplate! Teetotal songs thrill nobody, but the sing- 
ing inspired by wine is as intoxicating as the wine itself. Bacchus marches accom- 
panied by choicest songs, sweetest music, liveliest mirth. It is the same with war; 
poets, orators, historians have treated the battle-field so eloquently that the victories 
of peace look pale compared with the victories of war. We noticed a village the other 
day where the slaughter-house had been cleverly concealed by trees and evergreens ; 
and the slaughter-house of the nations has been similarly hidden by flowers of rhetoric." 

Following up the same idea that imagination often lends to evil things a fictitious 
splendor, he says: 

112. Attractiveness of Sin — "Bates found on the Amazon a brilliant spider that 
spread itself out as a flower, and the insects, lighting upon it in seeking sweetness, 
found horror, torment, death. Such transformations are common in human life ; things 
of poison and blood are everywhere displaying themselves in forms of innocence, in 
dyes of beauty. The perfection of mimicry is in the moral world, deceiving the very 
elect. Satan is transformed into an angel of light; his blasted brow is disguised by 
a wreath, his fiery darts seem glittering sceptres, the smoke of his torment goes up as 
incense." 

Following up the same idea, he gives us this: 

"A certain legend relates that one of the Biscayan mountains is accursed, and that 
Satan dwells there. The grass is withered, a sinister hue rests upon everything, the 
sounds are mournful, the mountain stands a dark phantom in the midst of bedecked 
nature. But this is not the method of evil. The mountain up which the devil took our 
Master, and up which he takes us, is bathed in purple; in its rocks gleam jewels, its 



4o GREAT ARCHERS 

dust is the dust of gold, in its clefts spring flowers, and from its crest is seen the vision 
of kingdoms and the glory of them." 

Showing how evil is transformed by society, he uses this historical reference : 

113. Sin's Secret Poison— "The Duchess Isabella, wishing earnestly to obtain 
some object, was instructed by the crafty court astrologer to kiss day by day for a 
hundred days a certain beautiful picture and she would receive her wish. It was a 
sinister trick, for the picture contained a subtle poison which stained the lips with 
every salutation. Little by little the golden tresses of the queenly woman turned white, 
her eyes became dim, her color faded, her lips became black; but infatuated, the sui- 
cidal kiss was continued until before the hundred days were complete, the royal dupe 
lay dead." 

Calling attention to the illusions so dangerous in the moral world, he illustrates 
with this interesting incident : 

114. Mistaking Water for Sky — "A celebrated naturalist tells us that he one day 
saw a bird drowning in a lake, and he felt sure that the bird had mistaken the water 
for the sky ; it was a bright, transparent day, the clear, calm lake reflected the sky and 
the whole landscape in its depths, and the bird, not discerning that the world below 
it was a world of shadows, was betrayed to its doom. So all the glories of the upper 
world appear inverted in the world of evil. The lofty, the pure, the beautiful, the 
bright, are all seductively reflected in the depths of Satan ; they are exaggerated there, 
they are seen in surpassing magnitude and splendor ; error seems some nobler truth, dis- 
obedience some larger liberty, forbidden things seem the sweetest flowers and mellowest 
fruits of Paradise." 



FRESH ARROWS FROM MANY QUIVERS. 



THE SENSE OF SIN. 115 

The Rev. Reginald J. Campbell, who has taken Dr. Joseph Parker's place in City 
Temple, uses this striking illustration in discussion of "The Sense of Sin:" 

Was it not Mr. Gladstone who said that he had noticed since that day a change in 
the attitude of men towards sin? That humble-minded statesman grieved over this, and 
declared that the first thing that a preacher ought to do was to arouse in men this sense 
of sin. Dr. Dale said he feared the difference between the last generation and this was 
that men did not fear God, they speculated about Him. I am rather inclined to ques- 
tion the truth of the statement that the sense of sin is weakened. It may be that there 
are tens of thousands in London who care nothing about Christ, but I am quite within 
the mark when I say that there are more men oppressed with a burning sense of their 
moral guilt, though, maybe, with never a thought of God, than all the preachers put to- 
gether could reach in a week. The sense of sin has changed its mode of expression, 
but it is not gone. It is real, and the need to which it gives rise is as great as ever. 
There sits in the City Temple this morning a man of high repute in the metropolis. He 
has everything that this world can give him, rolling in wealth, of great personal influ- 
ence, with power over the bodies and minds of men. You admire his position, perhaps 
you envy him. I bid you not to. He is suffering the tortures of hell, and this is the 
reason why. Years ago he married a young wife who loved him above all others in the 
world, and he was willing to give her anything in return but kindness. He treated 
her cruelly, brutally, with coldness that is worse than hate. He broke her heart and 
killed her. Now he is drawing towards the evening of life, when he has obtained 
everything he ever tried for, he finds how little it is worth, and he wishes that the 
tender grace of a day that is dead might come back again to him. He is as much a 
murderer as any criminal who was hanged in England this week. The horror of the 
situation is this : whether there is any Christ, any Gospel, any God, he is doomed to 
this torture till the grave closes over him. His conscience has told him so, and nothing 
will rid him of that enemy. What do you call that but a sense of sin? Sin is not only 
a Bible word or a pulpit word; it is a newspaper word, a Stock Exchange word, a 
Fleet-street word. You know without the preacher's help what it is to suffer for sin, 
your own heart tells you. 

THE FIGHT BETWEEN THE GOOD AND THE BAD. 116 

An old Indian once asked a white man to give him some tobacco to smoke, in his 

pipe. The white man gave him a loose handful from his coat pocket. The next day, 

the Indian came back and asked for the man. "For," said he, "I found a coin among 

the tobacco." 

"Why didn't you keep it!" asked the bystander. 

"I've got a good man and a bad man here," said the Indian, pointing to his breast, 
"and the good man say, Tt is not yours ; give it back to the owner.' The bad man say, 
'Never mind; you got it, and it's your own now.' The good man say, 'No, no! you 
mustn't keep it.' So I don't know what to do, and I think to go to sleep, but the good 
man and the bad man kept talking all night and trouble me; and now I bring the 
money back I feel good." Like that old Indian, white men and women have a good 
and a bad man within. The bad man is the temptations of the Evil One, and the good 
man is the conscience set in every human breast. They keep talking for and against, 
and our salvation depends on the good man's victory. 



MUSIC ON A FREIGHT TRAIN. 117 

A recent writer tells of a western freight crew all of whom are Christians. Three 
of them are church singers. They are famous for their religion and their music. One 
evening when there had been a delay at a certain station, and many were cross and im- 
patient, all were attracted by these three trainmen who began singing, "One sweetly 
solemn thought." Those who did not understand seemed amazed, for they instantly 
perceived it was being sung reverently. During the remainder of the trip the best of 
humor prevailed, even though four passengers had missed their connections by the 
delay. 

One day, while switched at a little town, Fatty found an organ on the depot plat- 
form waiting to be expressed. He sat down, and began to play and sing a church 
hymn. In less than five minutes twenty people had gathered around, looking and lis- 
tening in open astonishment. That a man in dirty work-clothes should sit down to an 
organ was surprising, but that a brakeman should sing a religious song reverently was 
simply astonishing. 

The writer who tells the story says the influence of these men is remarkable. They 
do their work well, and sing as they go, and spread good-cheer over every train they 
handle. That is the way we all should live, sing as we work. 

THE HINDOO BOY'S SERMON. 118 

David says in one of his Psalms that one of the hard things he had to bear was the 
sneer of wicked and unbelieving people who said to him, tauntingly, "Where is thy 
God?" Here is the reply of Vadivelu, a servant boy, a converted Hindoo: 

"My god can be seen by every one," said a Hindoo, who wanted to confuse and 
deride him; "for he is there at the end of the street. What is the use of a god you 
can't see?" 

Then the boy asked a question in turn: "Have you ever seen the tax collector?" 

"Yes, often," said the Hindoo. 

"The Governor?" 

"Well,, rarely." 

"Have you ever seen the great queen empress?" 

"No; why should a poor villager like me ever see her?" 

"Ah!" rejoined Vadivelu, triumphantly, "the little people you can see any day, but 
the great people seldom or never. We can see your gods on street corners, because 
they are such little ones; but Christ, our God, the Great and True, is in the heavens. 
"We cannot see him now, but those who love him here shall see him hereafter." 

GRIT AND GREATNESS. 119 

Let every boy understand that grit is one of the greatnesses. We must not give 
way to obstacles, but master them and make them serve us. Many are the stories of 
the boys who have climbed the mountain of honorable achievement by overcoming their 
weaknesses and gritting their teeth to go on in the face of difficulty. 

A Swedish boy fell out of a window and was badly hurt, but with clinched lips he 
kept back the cry of pain. The King Gustavus Adolphus, who saw the boy fall, 
prophesied that the boy would make a man for an emergency. He did, for he became 
the famous General Bauer. 

A boy used to crush the flowers to get their colore and painted the white side of his 
father's cottage in Tyrol with all sorts of pictures, which the mountaineers gazed at as 
wonderful. He was the great artist, Titian. 

An old painter watched a little fellow who amused himself making drawings of his 
pot and brushes, easel and stool, and said, "That boy will beat me one day." He did, 
for he was Michael Angelo. 

A German boy was reading a blood-and-thunder novel. Right in the midst of it 
he said to himself: "Now, this will never do. I get too much excited over it. I cam't 



study so well after it. So here it goes!" And he flung the book into the river. He 
was Fichte, the great German philosopher. 

FORGIVE AND FORGET. 120 

We often hear people say "I will forgive it, but I never can forget it." All such 
forgiveness is false. There really is no forgiving without forgetting. Here is a little 
story which illustrates very well : 

"I am sorry to see that you and Hal are not as good friends as you used to be," said 
George Hartwell's father to the young lad one day. "Have you quarreled?" 

"Not exactly, but he treated me in a mean, shabby way a while ago, and we've never 
been as good friends since." 

"Wasn't he sorry afterward? Did he never ask your pardon? I thought Hal was 
unusually ready to acknowledge himself in fault." 

"Oh, he said he was sorry, and he did ask my pardon." 

"You surely did not refuse it?" 

"Of course not, father, but then I can't forget, you know." 

"The same old story, my son," said the father gravely. "What is pardon worth 
that still keeps the offence in angry remembrance?" 

"Well," said George, excusingly, not answering the question, but making an objec- 
tion, "it is very hard to forget." 

THE CONVERTED BANDIT. 121 

The Rev. George D. Coleman relates a most interesting story of the conversion of 
a Mexican bandit: 

It was Sepeda who cut off the arm of the native follower of Stevens, Emiterio, 
when he raised it to emphasize his words that he would not give up his religion. After 
this deed he ran away for several months. On his return, when things had quieted 
down, he heard that services were still being held. This made him furious, and he 
armed himself with a new knife which he had had specially sharpened for the occasion, 
and, declaring that he would kill the whole lot at the first word of heresy he heard from 
them, he repaired to the meeting-place. 

The services were being conducted by a poor Indian, who read the Scripture, and 
explained and commented upon it. As he looked up and saw Sepeda enter, saw his 
glowering look and his knife, he knew that he had come for trouble. The Indian silently 
prayed for help and protection, and seemed to be helped in choosing passages of" Scrip- 
ture referring to the shedding of innocent blood. He saw that Sepeda was being visibly 
affected, and began to praise God in his heart. After the service was over, Sepeda came 
to the front and asked for a copy of the Bible. He then turned to the congregation, and 
said : "I came here to kill as many of you as I could, but the words of this book are 
not what I had supposed them to be. I will take this book home with me and read it ; 
and, if I find it is a bad book, I will return to settle my account with you, but if it is 
good, I will stand by it." 

He remained at home one week, and except when sleeping or eating he never lost 
a moment from reading the Bible. The word of God soundly converted him to a 
knowledge of the truth in Christ Jesus. And he started off on a sixty-mile walk on 
foot to Guadalajara, where he surprised the congregation by walking up and asking of 
Rev. D. F. Watkins that he might be received into membership in the church. His 
reception into the church was a most solemn and impressive service; and, when Brother 
Watkins gave him the right hand of fellowship, he said, "As you have been a great 
persecutor of the church, I commission you as Paul was commissioned, to preach the 
gospel to this people." Sepeda was true to his commission, and became a most lovable 
Christian character and a powerful preacher. 

SPIRITUAL FERTILIZERS. 122 

A famous English gardener once heard a nobleman complainingly say, "I cannot 



have a rose garden, though I have often tried, because the soil around my castle is too 
poor for roses." "That is no reason at all," replied the gardener. "You must go to work 
and make it better. Any ground can be made fit for roses, if sufficient pains are taken 
to prepare it." The same wisdom applies to the growth of spiritual graces. It is idle 
for any man or woman to say that good cheer, and forgiveness, and patience, and 
gentleness cannot be grown in their hearts because the soil is too poor. The soil must 
be made better. Heavenly fertilizers can be had free. Heaven is given away to human 
hearts, and if the soil in our soul gardens is poor, it is our own fault. 

RACE SUICIDE AND LANDLORDS. 123 

President Roosevelt, President Eliot, of Harvard, and other distinguished men 
have awakened great interest in the discussion of the fact that the more enlightened 
people are having but few children — so few, indeed, that the graduates of Harvard do 
not have enough children to equal the number of graduates. There is an interesting 
side phase to this discussion, and that is the question of housing large families. The 
query is pertinently asked: What boarding-house will receive them? What land- 
lord will rent to them? The mother of half a dozen children will knock in vain at 
boarding-house after boarding-house, and will wear out her shoes before finding a land- 
lord in our modern congested cities who will rent his property, even at an advance in 
the rental price. In fact, mothers of six or eight children have to condense the truth 
somewhat to find any refuge at all. 

An illustration transpired within the past few days in an Eastern city. The mother 
might have paraphrased Wordsworth's lines, "Kind sir, we are seven," when asked as 
to the extent of her little folks. But, driven to something like desperation, she did say, 
"We are four." "She had been driven from boarding-house to boarding-house. No 
matter what generous prices she offered to pay, the keeper of the boarding-house waved 
her away indignantly. Seven small children ! The words are enough to send the 
hardiest landlady to the bottle, the smelling-salts bottle. 'Seven small children ! 
Madam, this is a boarding-house, not a colony. Good-morning. Seven small children ! 
We don't keep a babies' hospital, ma'am.' You can hear the doors slam and fancy the 
distress of that mother. It's hard lines to have a taboo or boycott laid upon you ; to be 
homeless although you have the means of hiring a home ; to be perfectly respectable and 
yet shooed away from every door you knock at; to be made to walk the streets with 
seven small children until they grow up. The wandering families deserve civic crowns, 
thanks of legislatures and congresses, honorable mentions, ribbons, pensions." What 
they do get is a cold shoulder. No children need apply. The fact is, about the only 
places available for the big family are the street, the moving-van or the bucolic land- 
scape. 

Here is a chance for Mr. Carnegie and other wealthy philanthropists to serve their 
time. Let us have flat-houses for large families at reasonable rates. 

FROM CRYPT TO CATHEDRAL. 124 

Longfellow, with true poetic insight, compares our earth life to a tarrying in the 
crypts of some vast cathedral. We can hear the organ above us, and the chanting of 
the choir. As some friend goes up before us, we catch a gleam of light streaming 
through the door. Shall we be afraid when our turn comes to mount the dark, narrow 
stair-case that leads us out of the crypts into the cathedral glory above? 

THE CONVERSION OF A DETECTIVE. 125 

The Rev. W. W. Pope has told in the Christian Endeavor World a remarkable 
6tory of his conversion. 

I had been a detective for twenty-seven years, most of the time in government em- 
ploy. I was an infidel, or thought I was; for I do not believe there are any real infi- 
dels. I had a friend who shared my views and whom I used to meet often to discuss 
infidel questions and to ridicule Christianity. 



One day, as I went down to the station to take my train to the city, I met the 
daughter of my friend coming to meet me. She was greatly excited, and cried out to 
me, "Papa is dying, and wants you to come and see him." 

Her words gave me a terrible shock ; first, to think that my friend was dying, and, 
second, to know what to do under the circumstances. However, I hastened with her to 
the house. 

As I went into the room of my friend, he held out his hand to me, and in a feeble 
voice said, "Dave, the doctor says I have got to die." 

Thinking to quiet him with some commonplace remark, I replied, "Well, I suppose 
it is appointed unto men once to die." 

That is all I intended to say; but, as I finished those words, the latter part of the 
verse came into my mind, "after this the judgment." It not only came into my mind, 
but it loomed up before me like a big, black thunder-cloud, and fairly froze my soul 
with terror as I realized what it meant. I shouted it out at the top of my voice, "And 
after that the judgment." 

I did not do it purposely, but I seemed to be carried along by an irresistible 
power. 

My friend seemed to realize the meaning of the words as I had done ; and he, too, 
began to repeat at the top of his voice, "And after that the judgment," "And after that 
the judgment." 

He was as frightened as I was, and he began to shout to me, "O, Dave, pray for me, 
pray for me." 

He might as well have asked me to die for him as to pray for him, for I could not 
do either ; but I called to his little daughter, who was in the next room and who was 
an earnest Christian, "Mary, come in here and pray for your father." 

The little girl came in, knelt down at the bedside, folded her hands ; and, lifting her 
voice to God, she said, "Father, I thank thee for this hour," and then she poured out 
her soul in prayer as only a Christian girl could do under the circumstances. 

My friend soon died, and I went back to my home stunned and bewildered. For 
weeks I went around in a dazed condition. I was like a blind man groping in the dark. 

I went down to the office, and reported for work. The chief said to me : "W , 

you are sick. You have been working too hard. Go home and take a vacation for a 
few days, or weeks if necessary, and when you are better come back." 

I went home, but could neither eat nor sleep. Those words that I heard uttered in 
the sick-room of my friend were ever before me, "And after that the judgment." 

Finally, one day I went into the woods; and, taking my pistol, I laid it down on 
the ground, and, opening a Bible and kneeling down, I resolved that I would blow my 
brains out if I could not find peace with God. 

As I opened the Bible, my eyes rested upon one of the promises; I think it was 
John 6:37, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." 

I grasped at it as a drowning man grasps at a straw, and I held on for dear life, 
pleading that one promise over and over again until God forgave my sins and spoke 
peace to my soul. 

My deliverance was so wonderful that I could not keep it to myself, and so began 
telling it to everybody. 

God so blessed my testimony that different ministers urged me to go into the min- 
istry. I had received no college or seminary education; but certain ministerial friends 
of mine laid out for me a course of study which I pursued under their direction, and 
was soon ordained to the ministry, in which I have continued for many years. So far 
as I know, I am the only minister in the country who had his training as a detective. 

THE GRACE OF DOING WITHOUT. 126 

President Frost, of Berea College, among the Kentucky mountaineers, relates: 
"When up in the mountains, fifteen miles from Berea, I asked the hostess if she 



ever went to Berea, fifteen miles away, for shopping. 'No.' 'When you cannot get 
what you need at the little store down by the creek, where do you go?' I asked The 
mountain woman answered, with a frank smile : 'I go without.' And it appeared that 
she had never been to any town or city in her life. It is brought home to the visitor in 
this region that the number of things people can do without is very great." 

Phillips Brooks in one of his greatest sermons says that men and women may be 
safely judged by what they are able to do without. As a man goes up in the scale of 
goodness, he cannot do without prayer, and kind deeds, but he can do without a great 
many self-indulgences. But as a man goes down in the scale, he gets so he cannot do 
without drink, or cards, and other sinful indulgences, but he can easily do without 
prayer or kindness. 

THE LAMB IS ANOTHER NAME FOR LOVE. 127 

Dr. W. Robertson Nicoll, the editor of the British Weekly, in a great sermon on 
the "Lamb's War With the Beast," has this striking passage : 

"In that Lamb love was shown stripped of the veils that hide. The love of the 
Lamb is the spring of our love, the love of Christ which no sin can weary, and no 
lapse of time can change, all redeeming, all glorifying, changing even death and despair 
to the gates of heaven. That love may win fresh triumphs in the wilderness through 
our love. It does not matter whether you preach to great audiences or teach little 
children, or visit poor women in the slums. It will matter very much if you do not 
love. You might preach with the tongue of an angel, and if you had not love, it would 
profit you nothing. It is love, the love that Christ kindles, and only that will endure 
the frequent ugliness and loathsomeness and thanklessness and corruption and back- 
sliding you must meet with day by day. Before you can open the sealed fountain of life 
in a dead heart you must first prove yourself to be a friend. I read of one Sister who 
went and sat by the bed of a young girl suffering from small-pox. "I did it," she said, 
" to prove to her that I was her friend, and she believed it, and the rest came right." 
Yes, it is the personal relation that has the real influence. "All love," said the mystic, 
"is returned in measure," and no saying is more true. Oh, but it is hard to love some- 
times, when everything that was lovable seems to have passed away. But this is never 
quite true. There is always something that is lovable. A great writer has told with 
infinite pathos of how a son recovered his father. The old man had been wild and 
wicked, and was far gone down to hell. There was something about him so repellent, 
so hopeless that the son sat beside him when he was in a drunken daze, and wondered 
how he could ever love him again. But as he watched he saw the mark of some mend- 
ing of the threadbare clothes, some poor, pitiful attempt at decency, and that very little 
thing called back the waters of the far ebbed ocean of feeling, and his soul rushed out. 
Yes, a pin's prick will draw the heart's blood, and something in the lowest feels after 
the higher, not always perhaps. Mark Rutherford tells us that though the desire to 
decorate existence is nearly universal even amongst the most wretched, so that the 
worst of mortals will put a flower in the room or an ornament on the mantelpiece, yet 
in the alleys behind Drury-lane this instinct, the very salt of life, was dead. It was 
crushed out utterly, a symptom which seemed ominous, and even awful to the last de- 
gree. Yes, and then we must fall back on the love behind us, the love that found us. 
Come spread abroad the Saviour's love, 
And that shall kindle ours. 

THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN. 128 

The Rev. R. J. Campbell, of London, paints these striking portraits, illustrating the 
consciousness of sin : 

This man started life high in the social scale. He has come down. He has flung 
away his opportunities, he forfeited the regard of h-is friends, maybe he has broken his 
mother's heart, and brought down his father's gray hairs in sorrow to the grave. Mark 



him as he sits near you, shabbily dressed, unkempt, hopeless-looking, the flash of his 
eye dimmed, his manhood gone. If you talk to him about sin he might be impatient; 
but if you tell him he has made his bed and must lie on it, he will bow his head in 
shame, for he knows that it is true. What do you call that? Is it not a sense of sin? 
Close by him sits another. You have pitied the poor unfortunate. But here is one you 
may pity more. He is cursed with success, because the foundation of that success was 
laid in falsehood. Years ago he got his first opportunity by telling a black lie. He 
has succeeded; but if he could put the clock back and cancel that lie he would gladly 
give up all his success. But he cannot; other people are concerned beside him, and to 
publish to the world what he is and what he was would be useless now. He has noth- 
ing to do with religion, for he will not play the hypocrite. But his remorse is eating out 
his heart. With another instance I may cease. There is another here who fights with 
an evil propensity the very existence of which is a humiliation. He won a victory this 
morning, but he knows that to-morrow the fight will have to be fought all over again. 
He is wrestling with a demon, the existence of which none of his friends suspect. Oh ! 
pity the man with a vile and secret sin. His despairing cry of agony rises up — "Is 
there no help for such as I?" All these things may exist without much thought of 
God. It is a remarkable thing that men may be tortured by conscience without think- 
ing from whence conscience comes. And yet when they do associate it with the 
thought of God they become at first more dreadful, and afterwards more hopeful. 
They say as poor David said after his great fall, "Against Thee and Thee only have I 
sinned." There is the first dawn of deliverance, though they know it not. If con- 
science be not always the voice of God, it certainly is in the cases I have named. Sin 
is a fact, and the consciousness of sin is His summons to the hearts of all men. 

BLOTTING OUT SIN. 129 

Here is one of Campbell Morgan's clear and helpful illustrations setting forth the 
simplicity of the truth that God will blot out our transgressions : 

A boy ran in to his mother one day after he had read that promise. "I will blot 
out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions."' And he said: "Mother, what does God 
mean when he says he will blot out my sins? What is he going to do with them? I 
can't see how God can really blot them out and put them away. What does it mean — 
blot out?" The mother, who is always the best theologian for a child, said to the boy: 
"Didn't I see you yesterday writing on your slate?" "Yes," he said. "Well, show it 
to me." He brought his slate to his mother, who holding it in front of him, said: 
"Where is what you wrote?" "Oh," he said, "I rubbed it out." "Well, where is it?" 
"Why, mother, I don't know." "But how could you put.it away if it was really there?" 
"Oh, mother, I don't know. I know it was there, and it is gone." "Well," she said, 
"that is what God meant when he said, T will blot out thy transgressions.' " 

My brother, are you troubled about the past? Are sins of the past haunting you 
to-day? I do not ask you to make a list of them — you cannot do it; but I ask you to 
remember that the list is made. The whole black list of sins is before thee, and there 
comes thy way to-day the Man of sorrows and of tears, the Man of suffering and of 
triumph, and he says : "I will blot out thy transgressions." 

THE DOWNFALL OF A HERO. 130 

If the grave charges of immoral conduct which were to be pressed against Sir 
Hector MacDonald, Major-General in the British Army, who recently committed sui- 
cide in Paris, rather than stand trial by court-martial, in Ceylon, were true, the sad 
case is only another illustration of the fact that men of leonine courage and indomitable 
resolution in the face of danger and difficulties may be extremely weak in their moral 
nature, or particularly prone to yield to some special form of temptation. General Mac- 
Donald did that almost unheard-of thing— worked, or rather fought, his way up from 
the ranks to a commissioned officer's position in the British Army, and, not only that, to 



very high rank in the service. The son of a poor crofter in the Scottish Highlands, 
and in youth a draper in Inverness, he served nine years in the Gordon Highlanders, 
winning distinction in the Afghan War, and early coming under the favorable notice 
of Lord Roberts. He might be said to have been one of Lord Roberts' "boys" — and it 
was Lord Roberts who to the last proved to be his best friend, advising him to return 
to Ceylon and meet the charges against him, making what explanation he could. 
"Fighting Mac" was at Majuba Hill, where, still fighting, he was taken prisoner, served 
in the Nile expedition of 1885, which undertook the relief of General Gordon, led a 
brigade of Egyptian troops in 1898 at Omdurman and at Khartoum, and in South 
Africa succeeded the lamented Wauchope in the command of the Highland Brigade. 
His breast was covered with medals, and his body bore the scars of honorable wounds. 
He was made a "K. C. B." in 1900, and was one of King Edward's aides-de-camp. Yet 
this lion of a man, who in spite of his humble origin was the pride of London, in some 
way not specified yielded to the impulses of appetite or passion, and at the very last 
shadowed his bright fame with the clouds of shame, or at least of suspicion. 

THE LETHARGY OF JOHN SMITH. 131 

An English minister recently reviews a book which has caught the attention of 
England, and points out its interest to Christians. America, too, has multitudes of 
brothers to this same John Smith in all her cities. A powerful and painful little book 
lately published under the title "From the Abyss" sketches a typical working man, John 
Smith by name. The writer foresees a not distant day when by the help of the police- 
man and the Peabody buildings, the ape and tiger instincts will be eliminated in man. 
He thinks that lives now insurgent and unconfined will become confined and acquiescent, 
that the block-dweller of the future will pass from the great deep to the great deep, 
vacant, cheerful, undisturbed by envy, aspiration or desire. John Smith represents 
half-a-million people. He lives in a four-roomed cottage at Camberwell with a wife 
and five children and a lodger. Six days of the week he goes early to his work at 
bricklaying ; he returns at night to his pipe and supper, and perhaps goes around to the 
public-house to hear the news. On Sunday he sleeps late, but he has Sunday dinner, a 
stroll in Peckham Rye, and he closes his day with his companions at the Blue Dragon. 
So long as work is good and pay regular, he does not lift his voice in complaint. In- 
tellectual interest he has none. He will not listen to lectures. He will read a news- 
paper, but the news does not stir him. He cannot be galvanised into utterance. He 
drifts to his work daily, dumbly contented if work is easy and lucrative, dumbly resent- 
ful if it is not, but dumb always. To the churches he is practically invulnerable. He 
has no quarrel with religion, but what faith he has is merely in a Deity of universal 
tolerance. He is common-place, respectable, and fairly virtuous. Yet he is an im- 
mortal spirit journeying between two eternities through a world of tragical meaning, to 
the significance of which he seems destined to be blind. There are, we are told, in this 
vast city hundreds and thousands of such, and the trouble about them is not that they 
are unhappy, but that being what they are they, they should be so happy. Against this 
apparent death of the spiritual needs and cravings, against this life under the low sky, 
against this apparent numbness of heart and conscience, the Lamb wages His War. 

WHAT CHRISTIAN WORKERS NEED. 132 

A Sunday School class was listening to a lesson on patience. This was what came 
of it, at least in the minds of the more literal-minded children : 

The topic, had been carefully explained, and as an aid to understanding, the teacher 
had given each pupil a card, bearing the picture of a boy fishing. 

"Even pleasure," said she, "requires the exercise of patience. See the boy fishing 
He must sit and wait and wait. He must be patient." 

Having treated the subject very fully, she began with the simplest, most practical 
question : 



"And now can any little boy tell me what we need most when we go fishing?" The 
answer was shouted with one voice: 

"Bait!" 

There are many preachers and Sunday School teachers, as well as parents, who 
ought to take this story to heart. Indeed, every disciple of Jesus ought to be a fisher 
after men, and there is no use going fishing without bait, and bait that will attract the 
fish. 

A WONDERFUL CONVERSION. 133 

One day, nearly half a century ago, a gypsy wagon stopped before a doctor's door 
in a little Hertfordshire town. There was a sick child inside. The doctor went to 
the door of the cart and looked at her. His verdict was instant: 

"Smallpox. Get out of the town at once." 

Under the doctor's directions, the father drove his wagon to an unfrequented lane, 
where he set up his tent. He kept the wagon at some distance from the sick-room, 
and there he, the father, remained to care for the suffering child. In a few days an- 
other child became ill. The father took him, too, not allowing his wife to come near. 
She cooked the food for the sick ones, and wandered up and down the lane almost dis- 
tracted with grief. In her anxiety she crept closer and closer to the wagon, where her 
sick children lay, and so, probably through her mother-love, exposed herself constant- 
ly to contagion. 

One morning she knew that the fatal disease had found her, too. The father was 
desperate. He loved his wife devotedly, and had tried his best to save her. Day and 
night for a month he had nursed his chilren. Now the wife was dying. From the first 
there was no hope for her or the baby. 

Sitting by her bed, the husband asked her if she believed in God. Once, years be- 
fore, he had been in prison upon some charge or other, and had heard the chaplain 
preach from the text, "I am the good shepherd." He could not read, and there had 
been no one to help him, but the sermon had made a deep impression on him, and 
through all his subsequent years of wandering he had not forgotten it. 

"Do you try to pray?" he asked. 

"Yes," she answered, "but always there comes a black hand before me, and a 
voice says, There is no mercy for you.' " 

Her husband hurried outside that she might not see his face. He was so utterly- 
alone in his terrible need ! His wandering life had left him small opportunity to form 
any permanent friendships in any of the places he visited, and his race was never re- 
garded with favor. Now, moreover, the terrible disease from which his wife was dy- 
ing, and his children suffering, still further cut him off from human help. Then from 
the wagon he heard his wife's voice: 

"I have a Father in the promised land. 
My Father calls me, I must go 
To meet Him in the promised land." 

The feeble voice sang the words clearly. 

The man ran back. "Where did you learn that?" he cried. 

The dying woman lifted her eyes to his, all the trouble gone from them. 

One Sunday, when she was a child she told him, her father had pitched his tent 
upon a village green. The children were going to chapel, and the gypsy child had fol- 
lowed them and heard them sing those words. To-day they had come back to her with 
a wonderful message. 

"I am not afraid to die now," she said. "It will be all right. God will take care 
of my children." 

A day or two later she died — quiet and unafraid. 

No minister, teacher, or missionary had ever come near her life, but through a 



child's song, heard twenty years before, the mighty Lord had met the seeking soul and 
given it peace. 

The dying woman was the mother of the famous evangelist, "Gipsy Smith." 

RESPONDED TO A TRUE NOTE. 134 

In a court of justice a number of violins were lying on a table. The ownership of 
one of them was in question. It did not differ in appearance from the others, but one 
witness said he would know it among a thousand. 'T would know it," he said, "even 
if I were blind." "How?" asked the astonished judge. "By its voice," replied the old 
man. "It would speak to me as no other violin can speak. It is speaking to me now." 
And, listening, he bent low until his ear almost touched the instrument, and he grasped 
another that lay beside it, and with his right hand swung the bow across the strings, 
A low, deep, throbbing, pulsing note broke the stillness of the court room. When it 
ceased, with hand uplifted, and with bow pointing to the table where the other instru- 
ments still lay, the old player waited expectantly. Across the room, faint, yet clearly 
audible, came the sweet, low, throbbing note, yet far richer, sweeter, and purer, as 
though some celestial master-player had swept the strings. "That," said the old man, 
"was the voice of the violin. It has a soul, and it has speech. But a false note, rude 
sounds, or mere discord will not open its lips. So whenever I strike a true note, if the 
old violin be in the room, or near at hand, it will always answer." So there are in 
our hearts some rare hidden qualities, that do not appear on the surface. From them 
comes to the listening ear words like the music of the spheres. It is their delicately 
attuned souls responding to the divine call. 

JUST IN TIME. 135 

An interesting story is told of a home missionary who had been sent to a discour- 
aged and scattered community, where he found few who were not indifferent to his 
work, who came, in his house-to-house visitation, to the last dwelling within his ex- 
tended parish, and there received a somewhat reluctant invitation to supper. 

After supper he talked to the family of his work, and tried to awaken within them 
some interest in it, but found them cold and disinclined to converse on religious or 
any other subjects. It was evident that they wished him to go, and he went out into 
the night. 

It was several miles back to the village, and there was no house between at which 
he thought he would be welcome, so he went on, and called at several houses, without 
finding one where he could stay overnight. Weary and disheartened, he prepared to 
spend the night out of doors. He knelt by the roadside and poured out his loneliness 
and sorrow in prayer, and then went on, saying to himself, "The Master spent long 
nights out of doors for me ; shall I not be willing to do as much for Him ?" 

It was too cold to keep still, and he walked slowly on, till the road, now quite 
strange to him, brought him to a little railway village. It was now past midnight, 
and the villagers had long since gone to bed. There was only one light burning in the 
town, and that was in the railway station. The minister went inside and warmed 
himself by the fire. No one was there but the night telegraph operator, who, sitting 
alone night after night, with nothing to do but report the passing of an occasional 
freight-train, was glad of a companion. 

"Waiting for the next train ?" he asked. "She's forty minutes late." 

"No," said the minister, "I'm not going anywhere. I'd like to sit by your fire till 
morning." 

"Glad to have you," said the young man. "It's very lonely here, and I'm glad of 
company-— that is, when they're sober." 

"I shall give you no trouble in that way," smiled the minister. 

"You're a preacher, aren't you?" asked the operator. 

"Yes." 



"Don't see many of them here. I used to see them at home — in God's country. I 
was brought up that way," said the young man. 

As the night wore on, and the two men got acquainted, the boy, for he was little 
else, told his life story. He had had a good father and a good mother, although both 
were now dead. He had had a religious training, too, but had grown indifferent, and 
was now — the whole truth came out at length — on the verge of a great temptation, 
and at the parting of the ways. His new friend had come just in time to awaken the 
memories of a better life, and to help him 10 be a true man. 

Morning came, and after a breakfast at the hotel, the missionary took his way, 
en foot, along the railway to his parish, back to the difficulties of his work. "But I 
thanked God every step of the way," he said, "for the providence that denied me a home 
that night." 

PRAY WITHOUT CEASING. 136 

Speaking of his experience in Brazil, a Bible colporteur says: "While we were 
waiting for a friend who had gone for provisions, there suddenly fell upon us a mob 
of about thirty or forty persons, armed with sticks, swords, and pistols. They sur- 
rounded us so quickly, it seemed as if they had dropped down out of the skies. They 
were raging wild with excitement, and we thought we would be murdered. I breathed 
a silent prayer to God for help and deliverance. I took the Testament and read John 
iii. 16, and then, for twenty minutes, standing with uncovered head in the burning sun, 
1 talked to them of God's great love. The mob at once began to quiet down; some 
dropped their stones and sticks, others put up their swords and pistols, and all lis- 
tened attentively. Many seemed deeply moved, and some, with tears in their eyes, 
came up, and, throwing their arms around us, said, 'How is this? We have never 
heard such things before.' There could be no doubt that God had sent His Spirit to 
deliver us and them. We had a glorious time." 

YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND TO-MORROW. 137 

Martin Luther's motto was, "Live as if Christ had died yesterday, had risen to-day y 
and were coming to-morrow." Lucy A. Bennett, studying this motto, has written some 
impressive verses on the thought it suggests. 

Live thou as if but yesterday 

Were seen earth's greatest wonder, 
When Christ, the Victim-Lamb, expired 

Amid Golgotha's thunder. 
Live as if yesterday He died 
To woo thee to His riven side. 

Live, too, as if this very morn 

He rose from death victorious, 
And captive led captivity 

In resurrection glorious — 
As if the Lord, this very day, 
Stood where the stone was rolled away. 

And live as if the coming dawn 

Would see the Lord descending, 
Ten thousand thousand angels fair 

His Majesty attending. 
Yea, live as if to-morrow's light 
Would bring Him to Love's longing sight. 



GOING DOWN IN ORDER TO GO UP. 138 

Rev. Mark Guy Pearse tells us how Mr. Boardman one day passing through a 
large city called on an old friend who was a shot manufacturer. His friend asked him 
if he would like to have the world under his feet. Mr. Boardman understood that they 
should go to the top of the shot-tower, and at once fell in with the proposal. As they 
went out he saw a stone staircase winding up into the darkness, and began to mount 
the steps. "No," said his friend, "you are going wrong. You must go down here. 
That is the old way — dark, dusty, and full of cobwebs. You would find a door near 
the top that is nailed up now. You would only knock your head, get covered with 
dust, and have to come down again. This is the way." And he pointed to steps that 
went down. 

"Going down is a strange way to get up," thought Mr. Boardman. 

"Now, all you have to do is to sit still." 

"But I can never get up by sitting still," said Mr. Boardman. 

"Trust me, and you will see." 

Instantly they began to rise. They were on a lift, and in two minutes they were 
high above the city, to find the world under their feet. 

Trusting God and following Him, though He lead us down, will put the world 
under our feet. 

GOD WITH HIS PEOPLE. 139 

John Wesley's dying words were, "The best of all is that God is with us." We- 
read in Genesis how "the Lord was with Joseph" in the palace and the prison alike. 
So in the Acts we read how Christ was with Paul and Silas in the dungeon at Philippi, 
They could not sleep, but they could sing. Fox, in his "Book of Martyrs," tells of 
more joy in Bonner's coal-hole and in the Lollard's Tower than ever was known in 
the palace of any king. The martyrs "felt a heaven of joy while in a hell of pain." 

IN THE HANDS OF OUR GOD. 140 

A naval officer being at sea in a dreadful storm, his wife, who was sitting in the 
cabin near him, and filled with alarm for the safety of the vessel, was so surprised with 
his composure and serenity that she cried out, "My dear, are you not afraid? How is 
it possible that you can be so calm in such a dreadful storm?" He rose from his chair 
lashed to the deck, supporting himself by a pillar of the bed-place, drew his sword, and 
pointing it to the breast of his wife, exclaimed: "Are you not afraid of that sword?" 
She instantly answered, "No." "Why?" said the officer. "Because," rejoined the lady, 
"I know it is in the hands of my husband, and he loves me too well to hurt me!" 
"Then," said he, "remember I know whom I have believed. And that He holds the 
winds in his fists and the waters in the hollow of his hands." 

AN UNEXPECTED CONVERSION. 141 

Canon Aitken, the well-known missionary of the Church of England, recalls an 
incident in the history of his own father's work in Cornwall. Signs of a spiritual 
revival were showing themselves in the parish, but nothing decisive had happened. One 
evening a little group of the "village aristocracy" were sitting together in the hotel of 
the neighboring town, when the talk turned to the revival. 

"I say, Captain Jim," said one of the company to a prominent mine-agent, perhaps 
the gayest of the little circle, "I tell you what it is ; when I hear of your being con- 
verted I shall begin to think that there is something in it." 

The hearers laughed, save Captain Jim, to whose mind the assumption of his hope- 
less state came with a shock. A little later in the evening the company gathered in 
the village schoolroom were astonished to see Captain Jim walk boldly up to the front 
seat. 

Mr. Aitken announced that hymn of Wesley's, wherein this stanza occurs: 



"Convince him now of unbelief, 

His desperate state explain; 
And fill his heart with sacred grief 

And penitential pain." 

As he heard those words, Captain Jim "fell on his knees before all the people, with 
a cry for mercy on his life." He, the unexpected one, was the first fruit of an extraor- 
dinary revival : he lived thereafter a godly life, and died a few years ago, "in the full 
faith of a Christian." 

SHOWING AFFECTION TO THE OLD. 142 

A recent writer sets forth with beautiful clearness our opportunity to bless the 
aged: 

There is a pathetic charm about old age. We are sure that nothing is so lovely 
as the saintly old grandmother occupying her accustomed place in the chimney-corner. 
There is something that entrances while we watch the silver-haired patriarch as he 
fondles his darling grandchild on his knee. They are the salt of the earth, the treasure 
in the home, the familiar figures in community life. And more than this love of others, 
there is coming a time in our own individual history when we shall crave the caresses 
and love of friends. Old age is more keenly sensible to neglect than at any other time. 
It is not intentional — no, we may commit this neglect amid our devotion to and attend- 
ance upon other matters. We forget, however, that the inward craving of old age con- 
ceives of no apologies and knows no reason why the old-time caress and fondling 
should be things of the past. It transmutes everything into neglect. Age softens the 
heart and the soul pines for the touch of the hand that would stroke the golden locks 
of a prattling child. Let's love them more than by a mere sentiment! What would 
we do without these saints? Amid these reveries, we recall the lines of Elizabeth 
Gould: 

"Put your arms around me — 

There, like that; 
I want a little petting 
At life's setting, 
For 'tis harder to be brave 
When feeble age comes creeping 
And finds me weeping 

Dear ones gone. 
Just a little petting 
At life's setting: 
For I'm old, alone, and tired 
And my long life's work is done." 

THE TREE THAT SHOCKS. 143 

There is a peculiar tree in the forests of Central India which has most curious 
characteristics. The leaves of the tree are of a highly sensitive nature, and so full of 
electricity that whoever touches one of them receives an electric shock. 

It has a very singular effect upon a magnetic needle, and will influence it at a 
distance of even seventy feet. The electrical strength of the tree varies according to 
the time of day, it being strongest at midday and weakest at midnight. In wet weather 
its powers disappear altogether. Birds never approach the tree, nor have insects ever 
been seen upon it. 

The true Christian has many of the characteristics of this unique tree. The Holy 
Spirit living in our hearts gives us divine influence for the blessing of others, and, like 
the tree, we only have power when our Sun shines upon us. If we let the midnight 



of gloom enfold us, we lose our power. But it is our privilege to have the light and 
power always with us. 

THE DOOM OF SELFISHNESS. 144 

The path of a man's life who is ruled by self ever leads downward. Many who 
are determined to have their own way end as did the Prodigal Son, feeding swine. 
Speaking of Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson said: "Whether as a man, a hus- 
band, or a poet, his steps led downward. He had trifled with life, and must pay the 
penalty. He died of being Robert Burns." To prevent such catastrophes in human 
lives, Christ would set up his throne in every heart. "I will come to you." And where 
He comes the life is purified, the character transfigured. 

"In Him all fulness dwelleth, 
All grace and power divine." 

THE OBLIGATIONS OF WEALTH. 145 

Miss Helen Miller Gould recently said concerning the obligations of wealthy young 
women : 

"There is one obligation upon all persons, rich or poor. We are required to do 
out utmost to use wisely the gifts which God has granted us ; we are expected to live 
for others rather than for ourselves. The possession of wealth is an undoubted aid in 
bringing about the happiness of unfortunate ones, and the possesor may reasonably be 
expected to carry on a larger work than a person with very limited means. It is also 
true, however, that spending money is only one way of meeting our obligations. I have 
known many consecrated men and women, almost penniless, who carried on a great 
work for the Master, and they accomplished more real good than those whose labor 
ended with the distribution of wealth. They used the talents which had been given 
them, and their hearts' interest was in what they did. 

"It is not enough that we should distribute alms. We should be careful to see that 
our gifts reach the proper persons, and are not placed where they will accomplish more 
harm than good. Many well meaning people expend their money where it really isn't 
needed, while they ignore the urgent cases which they might discover before their very 
eyes. They are not true to their obligations. They are not commanded to distribute 
money, but to do good to others, and their possession of wealth should enable them to 
do good largely. 

"It requires time and attention to use one's gifts to the best effect, and compara- 
tively few are willing to give the necessary time. It isn't right that we should give to 
unknown charities without investigation, and yet to investigate will require many hours, 
perhaps. That is the hard part. It isn't pleasant in the beginning to refrain from call- 
ing on one's friends in order that we may look into some appeal for aid which has been 
made. Yet if we make those social calls and neglect the call of duty we are not true 
to the obligation to consider others before ourselves. We are failing to make use of the 
gifts which God has granted us, of our capacity for doing good. But after a time, when 
we have become thoroughly accustomed to thinking of others before ourselves, our. 
greatest pleasure will be found in acts of charity." 

THE READER'S PRAYER. 146 

Charles Lamb once said that he felt more like saying grace before a good book 

than before meat. H. H. Barstow, receiving his suggestion from Dr. Henry Van 

Dyke's "Writer's Prayer," in "The Ruling Passion," gives us a suggestive "Reader's 

Prayer:" 

Lord, let me never slight the meaning nor the moral of anything I read. Make 
me respect my mind so much that I dare not read what has no meaning nor moral. 
Help me choose with equal care my friends and my books, because they are both for 
life. Show me that as in a river, so in reading, the depths hold more of strength and 



beauty than the shallows. Teach me to value art without being blind to thought. 
Keep me from caring more for much reading than for careful reading, for books than 
the Book. Give me an ideal that will let me read only the best, and when that is done 
stop me, repay me with power to teach others, and then help me to say from a disci- 
plined mind, a grateful Amen. 

A GOD IN DISGRACE. 147 

In 1896, the year of the heated canvass between Bryan and McKinley, one of the 
amenities of the campaign was the spectacle of an infuriated Chinaman chopping his 
wooden idol to pieces with a hatchet in the middle of a New York street. His wrath 
arose on this wise : He had displayed in front of his laundry the yellow banner of his 
country, and a warm Republican persuaded him that in order to make the flag acceptable 
to American eyes, it should bear on one side the name of Mr. McKinley. The Chinese 
consented to the addition and a cotton placard was pinned on, bearing the name of the 
Republican candidate. Along came a Democrat, influential in the ward, and seeing 
the legend, went in, and through an interpreter, gave the Chinaman to understand that 
the banner was not complete without the name of Bryan, so down it came, and a strip 
of cotton cloth, bearing in black letters the name of the Democratic candidate, was 
fastened on the other side. A few hours later, the man servant of a leading local 
Republican made his appearance with the family "wash," and seeing the name of Mc- 
Kinley on the banner, congratulated the Chinaman on his good taste, left the bundle 
and was departing, when his eye caught the legend on the reverse of the Chinese ban- 
ner. Wroth at such duplicity, he went back into the laundry, cursed and smote the 
Chinaman, gathered up the bundle of clothing he had just delivered and carried it 
across the street to a rival Chinese establishment. The poor Chinaman instantly 
grasped the idea that he had lost a very profitable customer. Of course the idol was 
responsible, so he jerked it from the laundry altar, kicked it into the street, spat upon 
it, and after covering it with mud, chopped it to pieces which he carried back into his 
place of business and thrust into his stove. 

THE DEVIL AS A BLACKSMITH. 148 

The Rev. Samuel Chadwick, one of the brightest, of the English preachers, has a 
new suggestion on the uses of Satan in this world which he illustrates by the follow- 
ing anecdote: 

"I have seen a blacksmith stand on one side of his anvil, while the striker with 
his sledge-hammer stood on the other. The blacksmith would turn the iron over and 
over, and touch it here and there with his little hammer, and the heavy blows of the 
striker would mold and shape it to his will. But I could never see the object of the 
little hammer until I one day asked the blacksmith, and he told me that with his small 
hammer he directed the blows of the striker, touching the iron to show where the blow 
was to fall. God uses the devil to hammer the saints into shape, and makes him sweat 
to perfect the saints for glory. Instead of murmuring and complaining at our trials 
and temptations we should thank God for them, for they are the necessary means for 
our perfecting." 

"THE CLOAK HE HAD WORN AT MARENGO." 149 

Dr. E. S. Tipple has published an interesting article concerning Napoleon, in which 
he says that for some reason the great warrior always kept the clothes he had worn 
at Marengo — the hat, the uniform, spurs, and sword. They were as sacred to him as 
the so-called relics of the saints are to the Catholic devotees. He often put on the old 
faded uniform, and wore it, as, for instance, on the occasion when he took Josephine 
to the field; and on St. Helena, when loneliness and desolation laid heavy hands upon 
him, and the ghastly forms of his former greatness haunted his waking hours and tor- 
mented his sleep, the sight of his old Marengo uniform alone brought a gleam to his 
eye, and the memory of his triumph on that bloody field gave at least a small measure 



of comfort. And chroniclers of the last days at St. Helena take pains to record that, 
when the exalted hero of a hundred battles lay dead, they covered his feet with "the 
cloak he had worn at Marengo." 

There is no doubt that Marengo is one of the most famous battles in history. The 
story of it will never grow old. The attack, the rout of the French, the coming of 
Desaix, those memorable words late in the afternoon, "The battle is lost, but there is 
time to gain another," the opportune cavalry charge of Kellermann on the flank of the 
Austrian column, the swift overthrow of the Austrian standards, and the flight of the 
Austrian soldiers, the complete triumph of Napoleon — all this is familiar. The real 
significance of Marengo is that it was a victory on the field of a former defeat. 

"The battle is lost, but there is time to gain another." What a message of com- 
fort and hope for many a soul, who, defeated often by some overmastering passion, has 
lost hope and given himself up to despair. What a rallying cry this for all who daily 
walk on old battlefields, covered over with broken pledges, good resolutions, and shat- 
tered ambitions. 

Who of us has not sometimes felt : "It is no use trying ; I can never conquer this 
bad habit, or that; I shall never get the better of my surly or impatient tongue; I can 
never master my temper; I may as well give up first as last"? No; remember "the 
cloak he had worn at Marengo." However strong the habit, however frequent the 
defeat, though shame and despair cry at us from a thousand inglorious fields, we can 
overcome temptations which have often worsted us, and master faults which have 
caused us to lower our colors. Let us join battle on the same old fields. There is time 
yet for victory before the sun goes down. The day is not yet lost. There is at least 
the eleventh-hour chance for every man. There is deliverance from every form of slav- 
ery, provided our confidence is in God. He is the ground of our hope. When Edward, 
the Black Prince, saw his enemies for the first time, he said: "God is my help; I must 
fight them the best I can." Through him, and through him alone, we shall triumph 
valiantly, and be masters, soon or late, of every field. 

HUMILITY AND REVERENCE. 150 

The Rev. George Winifred Hervey relates that long ago, while pursuing investi- 
gations in the Astor Library, New York, he used often to meet there Prof. F. B. 
Morse, the renowned inventor of the electric telegraph. Once he asked him this ques- 
tion: "Professor Morse, when you were making your experiments yonder in your 
rooms in the university, did you ever come to a stand, not knowing what to do next?" 

"Oh, yes; more than once." 

"And at such times, what did you do next?" 

"I may answer you in confidence, sir," said the Professor, "but it is a matter of 
which the public knows nothing. Whenever I could not see my way clearly, I prayed 
for more light." 

"And the light generally came?" 

"Yes. And I may tell you that when flattering honors came to me from America 
and Europe on account of the invention which bears my name, I never felt that I 
deserved them. I had made a valuable application of electricity, not because I was 
superior to other men, but solely because God, who meant it for mankind must reveal 
it to some one, and was pleased to reveal it to me." 

This utterance by a distinguished man of science reminds us again, as many similar 
utterances have done, not only that true greatness has no vanity, but that superior 
minds, as a whole, reverently acknowledge the Supreme. They who climb highest see 
farthest, and the light which comes from above shines the longest way. 

LIGHT FROM ABOVE. 151 

At the completion of one of the Amherst College buildings, when President Hitch- 
cock first assembled his geology, class in a new recitation room with sky windows, this 



was his introduction to one of his best lectures: "Young gentlemen, all the light we 
have here comes from above." 

IMPERILLED BY SUCCESS. 152 

A significant story of "fisherman's luck" is told by a correspondent of a Philadel- 
phia paper. 

The sportsmen who go every year to Bayside, N. J., for the fishing, have been dis- 
gusted this season by their failure. One of them, however, who is an enthusiast in 
the sport, remained after the others left, in the hope of a catch. He had been watching 
the net for hours, when he saw the floats suddenly swish around under the impetus of 
a heavy body. He knew at once that a big fish was enclosed, and began to pull in with 
energy. Just as he had the net well in hand, standing in the front of the boat, the fish 
gave a heavy lunge and broke away for freedom. The fisherman was taken by sur- 
prise, and the sudden jerk threw him off his balance into the water. Happily, a com- 
panion saw his predicament and threw him a line, by which he was drawn on board. 
Then, with the aid of his rescuer, he caught the net with a hook and captured the 
biggest sturgeon of the season. 

It was well for him that some one was near enough to save him, otherwise he 
might have lost his life in securing his prize. There are some who have lost their 
souls in that way. In trying to win a fortune, they have been drawn into sin, and 
have sunk beyond redemption. To all who are so tempted, the words of Christ should 
come like a warning voice : "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and 
lose his own soul?" 

THE GLORY OF THE HUMBLE. 153 

Charles M. Sheldon writes of a woman of his acquaintance as follows : 
"She was just an ordinary womsn, without much leisure or time for culture. She 
did not know the difference between an Ionic and a Doric column in architecture, and 
she was not 'up' on china-painting or the Roman emperors. But she brought up three 
children to tell the truth, to love God, to love their brothers, and to do honest labor 
with their hands and not be ashamed of it. When she died the papers did not notice 
it, but the Recording Angel said, as he reached for a fresh pen and turned over to a 
clean page : 'A queen is coming ; get her throne ready.' " 

Who of us does not know of more than one queen like that? 

A CHILD'S FAITH. 154 

Bishop C. K. Nelson, of Georgia, tells a pretty story of the simplicity of a child's 
faith in God: 

The little daughter of an Atlanta man had been taught to kneel each night at her 
crib and repeat little prayers. When the family were leaving the boarding house ia 
the mountains where they had spent the Summer, the child was told to say good-bye to 
the others in the house. This she did, and then insisted on going back to her room. 
Her mother followed, to see her daughter go straight to the crib, kneel down, and, 
folding her hands, say gravely : 

"Dood-bye, Dod." 

Then she was ready for her journey. 

CAREFULNESS OF SURGEONS. 155 

It is an object lesson in godliness to see a surgeon washing his hands after per- 
forming an operation, says The Chicago Chronicle. He works, of course, with sleeves 
rolled up to the elbow, so that the washing extends from the crazy bone to the tip of the 
finger nail. First, there is a hard scrubbing with plain soap and sterilized water. This 
is followed by a swabbing with tincture of green soap and sterilized water. Then 
comes a genuine scouring with equal parts of quicklime and soda in sterilized water, 
and finally a rinsing in solution (1 to 2,000) of bichloride of mercury. Without these 



■four separate washings no surgeon would think of venturing out to scatter germs of 
disease. 

This ought to suggest to us the importance of keeping our own hands clean spirit- 
ually and morally if we are to deal wisely and safely with immortals who are influenced 
by us. 

TRIUMPH OF WILL POWER. 156 

Dr. David Gregg recently repeated a story illustrating Napoleon's undaunted will 
and his ability to command will power in others : 

The army of France stood silent and still before a wide river over which it was 
necessary to throw a bridge. 

"Measure this river," said Napoleon to the engineer. 

"I cannot, Sire," was his reply, "for I have no surveying-instruments with me." 

"You must." And Napoleon, who gave the order, was a man who never allowed 
his will to be thwarted. "You must, or lose your place." 

Necessity was the mother of invention, and the engineer on the spot invented a 
method so simple that any one could apply it. He used the walking-stick which he 
carried in his hand. Sighting it to his eye as one would sight a gun, he drew a bead 
upon a spot on the other side of the river, and then, imagining himself a pivot in the 
centre of a circle and the line which he sighted the radius of a circle, he wheeled half 
around on his heel, keeping the walking-stick as though it were still drawing a bead. 
With his eye upon the spot to which the walking-stick pointed, he paced off the distance 
between him and it, and then turned triumphantly to Napoleon and said, "Sire, the 
•distance is just fifteen hundred feet." 

And it was exactly fifteen hundred feet, as the bridge afterwards demonstrated. 

THE MARKET FOR SONGS. 157 

A recent poet brings out clearly the world's longing for the voice that cheers and 

inspires. Tears are not sought after in the market, but there are many buyers for 

•cheerfulness. Our singer says : 

Oh ! sing in the day-dawn, and sing in the night ! 
Oh ! sing as the star-gleams emerge into light ! 
Oh ! sing in thy sorrow and sing in thy mirth, 
Evermore may thy music ennoble the earth. 

No market is waiting for tears or for sighs; 
Go stifle thy moanings ! Go dry thy wet eyes ! 
Go bury thy troubles, deep hide them with care, 
The world will not question if any be there. 

Fling free on the ether thy happiest strains ; 
Thy harps on the willows give but doleful refrains. 
Chanting only of blessings go journey along — 
And the world will be sweeter for hearing thy song. 

A TIME FOR TROUBLE. 158 

A hard working woman whose ready help and abundant sympathy for the troubles 
of others make her the best of friends, lately gave her recipe for cheerfulness. "Why, 
it's no credit to me to keep cheerful," she said to a doleful visitor one day. "It's only 
that I have got into the habit of having all my uncomfortable feelings at one time. 
Mornings, after my husband's started off, I do the breakfast dishes before anybody 
else is likely to drop in; and if there's anything worrying me I just attend to it then. 
If I don't get it thought out enough, it has to go over until next day. 

"You select a few minutes like that in the early morning when you're fresh, and 



do up your worries for the day, and then put 'em out of mind, and you'll find it's the 
easiest thing in the world to keep cheerful the rest of the time and be ready to attend 
to other folks's troubles." 

What a vast gainer the world generally would be if only people would tidy up> 
their worries when everybody else is out of the way. 

HARD HEARTS. \S9> 

A bright preacher, speaking of the heart, recently said: 

The heart is often the poorest organ of all. How many small hearts there are! 
A broad, catholic, generous impulse never visits them. How many cold hearts ! Men 
sustain the relationships of life, and discharge all its duties, without a spark of the 
heavenly fire of a deep or tender affection. As Charles Reade describes one of his 
characters : "Meadows never spoke of his mother ; paid her a small allowance with. 
the regularity and affectionate grace of clockwork." How many have hard hearts ! We 
might justly compare them with marble, only they are not so white. The hearts of 
men are not infrequently their most contemptible part; while every other faculty has 
been nurtured to its highest, those fine feelings which are the distinction of our human- 
ity are starved. 

CHRIST'S COMPASSION. 16a 

Rev. Campbell Morgan tells two Bible stories in this picturesque way: 

Two men in the life of Jesus came to him — and one never can read the story of 
either without feeling how poor was the faith of each. 

One said: "Lord if thou wilt, thou canst." Don't you see, he wasn't perfectly 
sure that the Master was willing, but he ventured on him. He came to him on a crutch,. 
because he could not walk straight, and the crutch was a little "if" — "if thou wilt." 

The other had to get another crutch, a crutch for the other side, and he said : "If 
thou canst do something for my boy, do it." And how did the Master deal with this 
man?" Did he say, "No, I cannot help you; your faith is not strong enough; you. 
haven't confidence enough"? Not he. If a man got to him, he didn't care. It is 
better for a man to come with, "Lord, thou canst," "thou wilt," and "I believe" ; but if 
you cannot come that way, come the other way. Come with your "if." "Lord, if thou 
canst make me clean, do it ; only I come to thee." 

"A MIDDLIN' MAN OF GOD." i6r 

The phrase occurs in a recent book, where one of the characters remarks: "But 
I'll tell you this : a middlin' doctor is a pore thing, and a middlin' lawyer is a pore 
thing, but keep me from a middlin' man of God." The words are quaint, but they em- 
body, all the more strikingly from their very quaintness, the conviction of the average 
layman of our church, and other churches, as to ministerial mediocrity — "Keep me from 
a middlin' man of God." When a man needs a lawyer, he gets the best he can pay for 
— the man with most experience, most knowledge of law, most tact, and most influence. 
According as he gets the best, or the best procurable, he feels his case safe. When a 
man needs a doctor for himself, or some one loved better than self, he gets the man 
whose experience, whose skill, whose knowledge of medicine, and whose success in 
treating disease, give his patients the certainty that all that can be done will be done 
to palliate or to cure. So, when men need a minister — and they need a minister all the 
time — they naturally want the best they can get. 

This applies equally as well to laymen. It is as bad to be a poor Sunday school 
teacher, or a poor church official as to be a poor preacher. How the church would. 
blossom if every man and woman in it did their best. 

POOR MEN WHO ARE TRUSTED. 162 

That character is not a thing of salary, and that priceless honor is often hidden 



under the humblest clothes, is brought out very clearly in a recent magazine article 
discussing the multitudes of poor men who own priceless secrets. 

On the Thames marshes there is a small cottage which hides the secret Russia 
offered £40,000 for a few years ago, namely, that concerning the situation of the sub- 
marine mines which guard the metropolis. The cottage is stationed among dozens of 
similar structures, and five men, who go to and from their daily work like ordinary 
beings, alone know which it is and how the electric switchboard it contains can be so 
manipulated as to sink a powerful fleet in ten minutes. Any of these trusted servants 
could sell his secret for a fortune without the slightest difficulty, and yet is content to 
toil for a pound or two a week and preserve an unbroken silence. 

At a certain seaport on the east coast there lives a grocer who could let his 
premises to a European Power at a rental of thousands a year if he chose. The reason 
for this is that adjoining his cellars are the passages communicating with the mines 
which control the entrance to the harbor, and even he is not permitted to gratify his 
curiosity, for several sets of doors, fitted with secret locks, defy the intrusion of any 
unauthorized individual. The key to the mine chamber will probably be found at- 
tached to the person of a non-commissioned officer of the local garrison, for such 
priceless secrets are always intrusted to reliable non-coms, passing rich on half a 
crown a day. 

A LIFE FOR A HAT. 163 

A workman fell from the sixth to the first floor of an elevator-shaft in a great New 
York building. He fell head foremost, and was instantly killed. His hat was seen 
falling before him, and it is thought that he dropped his hat, reached over after it, and 
was struck into the pit by the descending elevator-cage. A life for a hat ! Yes, and 
every day lives are thrown away for things more worthless even than that. A life for 
a glass of whiskey. A life for a pack of cards. A life for a bunch of cigarettes. A 
life for a dance in a ballroom. A life for a theatre ticket. "All that a man hath will 
he give for his life"—— when he knows what he is about ; but so few know what they are 
about ! There is nothing in this world held so high as life — and nothing so cheap. Let 
every Christian know and teach the supreme value of life. It is the doorway to eternity. 
More than that, it is the guide-post for eternity; and whatever direction it takes, along 
that line we must forever go : down after a hat, or upward after God. 

AN ARTIST'S CONVERSION. 164 

The Bishop of Uganda was at one time a young artist. He was engaged in painting 
a picture, which he hoped would find a place in the Academy. It was the figure of a 
lovely woman struggling up a street in a wild, stormy night, the sleet driven by the 
wind into her face, a little baby at her bosom. And doors and windows were shut in 
her face. The picture was called "Homeless." As the man painted it and the artist's 
imagination filled his soul, it seemed to come to him as a living reality, and he put his 
brush down and said, "God help me ! Why don't I go to lost people themselves instead 
of painting pictures of them?" Then and there he consecrated himself to God. He 
went to Oxford University, and in due course he entered the ministry. 

After working in the slums of two of our cities, the conviction came to him that he 
ought to go to that part of the world where men seemed to be most lost. He came to 
the conclusion that East Africa was the place where he was most wanted. One day 
there came a message from the Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, asking 
whether he would be willing to be the leader of a party that was to go to Uganda. 

In due course he was consecrated Bishop, and he has brought to his high post 
rare gifts of administration, and an enthusiastic love of souls. 

GROUND TO POWDER. 165 

A gentleman relates this incident which happened upon the St. Lawrence river: 
Among the passengers on the boat was a loud and fluent talker who set up for aa 



atheist. He cared more for disseminating his opinions than for viewing the scenery; 
but especially broke forth at dinner, and occupied the time to the disgust of most of 
his hearers, asserting, among other things, that religion was an exploded superstition 
that men had outgrown; that in another fifty years Bibles, churches, and piety would 
be things of the outworn past. "They say," he said, fiercely, "that their Christianity 
shall become a mountain, and fill the whole earth. A stone growing ! Yes, it will grow 
as much as any other stone," and so on. He looked about for the effect of his words, 
and met the eyes of a lady whose whole face expressed horror. He said, flippantly: 
"Miss, I seem to have alarmed you — you look frightened." 

"I am," she responded, promptly, "for you. 'Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall 
be broken ; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.' " 

She did not wait for the effect of her words. They were spoken, not too loud, but 
with terrible intensity. With the last syllable, she sauntered out of the saloon. A pro- 
found silence feel on the company, during which our loud blasphemer slipped into his 
state-room. 

Late that evening the gentleman who tells the story heard one of those men say 
to another: "Grind him to powder! What a fearful expression!" That Christian 
woman's testimony had not been in vain. 

THE TWO PARTS OF PRAYER. 166 

Modern science has many illustrations full of suggestion for the Christian. A 
recent writer finds one concerning prayer in Marconi's invention. He says : 

When Marconi's receiver first took up the message previously agreed on, all the 
essentials of the system were established. Messages across the Atlantic could go both 
ways as well as one. So, we begin with a message from God, which had been prev- 
iously arranged, and henceforth pray with the assurance that God hears. But do we 
as confidently expect to hear directly from God? 

A Christian lady, whose name was not given, said to an acquaintance — a returned 
missionary — "Do you know the two parts of prayer?" 

"I am not sure that I do," was the answer. "What are they?" "Why, if I have 
ten minutes for prayer, I take five minutes in telling the Lord what I have to do, and 
what I seem to need, and then I take five minutes to wait for my answer, and," she 
continued, "you would be surprised to know some of the wonderful things God has 
said to me." 

A ship with a Marconi receiver in mid ocean, getting news from home, and warn- 
ing of danger ahead ! A heart in tune with the Infinite ! What possibilities are here ! 
I am acquainted with a working man, who after eating his mid-day lunch, spends the 
remaining minutes of the hour of rest in waiting on God. He says that at such times he 
hears and sees wonderful things of the Spirit. Why not? The prophet says, "I 
will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He 
will say unto me." 

OUR EOLIAN HARP. 167 

There is a story of a German baron who made a great Eolian harp by stretching 
wires from tower to tower of his castle. When the harp was ready he listened for the 
music. But it was in the calm of summer and in the still air the wires hung silent. 
Autumn came, with its gentle breezes, and there were faint whispers of song. At length 
the winter winds swept over the castle, and now the harp answered in majestic music. 
Such a harp is the human heart. It does not yield its noblest music in the summer 
days of joy, but in the winter of trial. The sweetest songs on earth have been sung in 
sorrow. 

WHAT PRAYER IS. 168 

Rev. Dr. O. P. Gifford has three telling illustrations concerning prayer in a dozem 
lines from one of his keen-cut sermons : 



The Bible is an art gallery whose walls are hung with pictures of men at prayer. 
Men in all ages, under all conditions, have prayer. The body is bound to the earth by 
the force of gravity, mind goes out to mind in thought, heart goes out to heart in 
love, the soul goes up to God in prayer. There would be no civilization without gravi- 
tation, there would be no mental life without exchange of thought, there can be no 
spiritual life without prayer. Prayer is the soul's gravitation toward God, prayer is 
the soul's exchange of thought and life with God. 

In prayer we do not so much seek to yoke God's will to the chariot of our pur- 
pose, as to find what God's will is concerning us and get strength to do it. We do not 
so much seek to get favors from God as to get God Himself. We bring our needs to 
Him that He may satisfy them or show us how needless they are; we bring ourselves to 
Him that He may fill us with Himself. 

THE MAGIC OF KINDNESS. 169 

A woman whose kindliness and lovableness have made her a large circle of friends 
was, when young, the only homely, awkward one in a class of exceptionally beautiful 
girls. She fell into a morose, despairing state, gave up study, withdrew into herself 
and grew daily more bitter and morose. One day the French teacher, a gray-haired 
old woman, with keen eyes and a bright smile, found her crying: 

"What is the matter, my child?" she asked. 

"O, madame, I am so ugly!" the girl sobbed out. 

She soothed her, and taking her into her room, said, "I have a present for you," 
and handed her a scaly, coarse lump covered with earth. 

"It is round and brown as you. Ugly, did you say? Very well, we will call it by 
your name, then. It is you. Now you shall plant it and water it and give it sun for a 
week or two." 

The girl planted it and watched it carefully. Green leaves came out first, and at 
length a beautiful golden lily. 

"Ah !" said madame, significantly. "Who would believe so much beauty and frag- 
rance were shut up in that ugly thing? But it took heart and grew into the sun- 
light!" 

PRIDE BEFORE A FALL. 170 

Six persons have recently perished in the Alps, all on the famous Wetterhorn, the 
peak which has a strong attraction for daring mountain climbers. Two of the travelers 
whose lives were lost were Englishmen, a clergyman and a civil service inspector. 
Each man had a guide, who shared his fate. The other two were a Scottish banker 
and his guide. A detailed story of the manner in which these two met their death 
was given to a local clergyman by another Scotchman, who accompanied them in their 
adventurous journey. He says that, steep as they found the mountain to be, that was 
not the source of the chief peril. They were in greater danger from the condition of 
the snow. The ascent was accomplished safely as the snow had frozen during the 
previous night. The scene from the summit was magnificent, and the two travelers, 
with their guides, stayed for some time resting and enjoying the view. When the 
descent began, the snow had become soft under the rays of the sun, and the journey 
was fatiguing. Less than half the distance had .been covered when a cry was raised 
by one of the guides that an avalanche was coming. In two minutes the mass was 
upon them. It passed over them, throwing all down, and went rolling on down the 
mountain side. The man who has lived to tell the story hurried to the side of his 
friend, but found him dead, as also was the guide to whom he was tied. His own 
guide was unconscious. He was revived, but his head had been injured and he was 
delirious. From two o'clock until ten o'clock the one man sat there on a ledge of rock 
listening to the raving of the injured guide. At last a party of guides made their way 
to the scene of the disaster and carried the dead bodies and the two survivors, one of 
whom was almost dead, to Grindelwald. The traveler who tells the story says that 



those eight hours of vigil on the mountain ledge were the most doleful he ever passed 
in his life. Happily for him, rescue came in time to save his life. It was an experience 
he will probably never forget. The death of two of his companions, and the injury to 
the other, must have impressed him with the folly of voluntarily incurring dangers 
which could bring no advantage. Wise is the man, who, not only in physical, but in 
mental and spiritual matters, can say with the Psalmist: 

"My heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in 
great matters or in things too high for me" (Ps. 131:1). 

THE CHRISTIAN LIKE A DIVER. 171 

The Rev. Dr. H. H. Johnston declares that the Christian in the world is like a 
diver who goes down in the sea. 

His life-work is in a world where the forces are alien, and tend to destroy his life. 
He is in that world, and yet not of it. His life is drawn from above, where his native 
air is supplied by a constant connection with the sources of supply. So long as that 
supply of life-giving air continues unbroken he is able to accomplish his task, not- 
withstanding the adverse conditions, and to realize his .victory over opposing forces, 
because of his vital connection with the power and life from above. It is a life of con- 
stant faith, of constant dependence, of constant activity, while the time is given to 
work, for the night will soon come. 

So ought it to be with the Christian. The mere statement of the case makes the 
truth apparent. It is a demonstration of the need of that habit which grows out of con- 
stant communion with God which brings the conscious, vital union with the Spirit of 
Christ, so necessary to every soul, and so certain to result in the precious fruit of 
victory over sin and achievement of duty with joy. It is living "risen with Christ," with 
the affections set upon the things which are above. It is the no/mal, blessed life of 
the child of God. 

CHRIST'S SHEEP KNOW HIS VOICE. 172 

A man in India was arraigned, some years ago, for stealing a sheep. He was 
brought before the judge, and the supposed owner of the sheep was also present. Both 
men claimed the sheep and had witnesses to prove their claim, so that it was difficult for 
the judge to decide to whom the sheep belonged. 

Knowing, however, the custom of shepherds and the habits of the animal, he 
resorted to the following expedient. He had the sheep brought into court, and sent 
one of the men into an adjoining room, while he told the other to call the sheep and 
see if it would come to him ; but the poor, frightened animal, not knowing the "voice 
of the stranger," would not go to him. 

In the mean time the other claimant, in the adjoining room, growing impatient, and 
probably suspecting the nature of the experiment which was going on, gave a kind of 
"cluck," upon which the sheep bounded to him without a moment's hesitation. This 
"cluck" was the way in which he had been used to calling his sheep, and it was at 
once decided that he was the real owner. 

This incident is a beautiful illustration of John 10:4, 5: "And His sheep follow 
Him, for they know His voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from 
him; for they know not the voice of a stranger." 

A SUMMERTIME CONVERSION. 173 

The editor of the Congregationalist tells the story of a most interesting conversion 
which is full of suggestion to Christian workers. 

A company of summer campers sat together under the trees on Sunday as the sun 
was setting and sang songs and hymns. Under the influences of the quiet woods 
and the gathering twilight some thoughtful words were spoken revealing inner ex- 
periences and aspirations. Then one young woman, who was a stranger to most of 
the company, said she had resolved to live for Christ and that she took that occasion 



to avow her purpose for the first time. Her statement was unexpected, for the gather- 
ing was informal and it was not a revival meeting; but it was in harmony with the 
spirit that had been awakened and it left an agreeable impression. 

A gentleman present sought the young woman after the meeting dispersed and 
advised her to tell her decision to the pastor of the church she attended, on her return 
home, and to enter into fellowship with the church. To his surprise she flatly refused. 
She told him that she knew hardly any one in the church, that she was a working girl 
whom the people would not welcome into their society, that they were cold and indif- 
ferent and that the pastor had never shown any interest in her. The gentleman wrote 
a note to the pastor, mentioning the incident and commending the girl to his atten- 
tion, and the matter passed from his mind. 

Several months later the young woman called at his office. She told him she had 
a Sunday school class of young ladies, all of whom wanted to be Christians, and that 
as he had helped her at a critical time, she had ventured to ask his counsel how to 
guide those in her charge. She was animated and earnest, and her eyes kindled as 
she spoke of her interest in others, in marked contrast to the reserve and indifference 
she had shown in that first interview. "Why," said he, "you told me the people in 
the church looked down on you because you were a working girl, and that you could 
not feel at home with them." 

"O," she replied, "that was because I didn't know them. When I came back 
home last summer, I found some of the people welcomed me. I went into the Christian 
Endeavor Society, and now I'm an officer in it. When I came to get acquainted with 
the people I found them delightful. I can't tell you how kind they are to me, nor how 
I enjoy working with them for the church. All my Sunday school class love me and 
they will all come into the church, I am sure. I want to show them how to work for 
Christ and I want to do more for him myself." 

"WOULD JESUS CHRIST SELL OUT?" 174 

A certain mining company was coming to grief. The shareholders would sustain 
very heavy losses. Among them was one much liked for his genial ways and kindness 
of heart. One who was in the secrets of the company determined to advise him to sell 
out. He went to see him and hinted that it would be to his advantage to sell quickly. 

"Why!" asked Mr. N . 

"Well, you know, the value of the mines is greatly depreciated." 

"When I bought the shares I took the risk." 

"Yes ; but now you should take the opportunity of selling while you can, so as not 
to lose anything." 

"And supposing I don't sell, what then?" 

"Then you will probably lose all you have." 

"And if I do sell, somebody else will lose instead of me?" 

"Yes, I suppose." 

"Do you suppose Jesus Christ would sell out?" 

"That is hardly a fair question. I suppose He would not." 

"I am a Christian," said Mr. N , "and I wish to follow my Master, therefore I 

shall not sell." 

He did not, and soon after lost everything, and had to begin life again ; but when 
men in that part want to point out a Christian they know where to find one. 

GOOD ENOUGH FOR HIM. *7S 

. Professor James M. Black, the well known singer and musical composer, tells the 
-following little story: 

"I think I met the prince of pessimists at Ocean Grove last summer. I went into 
the auditorium early, and as I had. just arrived and felt rather lonesome, I went over 
and sat down by the only other person in that neighborhood. Feeling disposed to be 



sociable, I entered into a little conversation with him, which was interrupted when 
Bishop FitzGerald rose to open the services. The bishop's full, round voice filled the 
place, and his earnestness moved me to express myself. As he sat down, I turned to 
my neighbor, and said : 

" 'That is good ; the bishop is the right man in the right place.' He looked very 
dubious, and, shaking his head, remarked : 

" 'He does very well, but things don't go like they did when Stokes was here/ 
'That so?' said I. 'No, not by a long shot,' said he. 

"Then the preacher came on, and he took us all up on Pisgah's top, I thought ; any- 
way, I felt good, and, turning to my long-faced brother, I exclaimed : 

"'That's fine; I could have listened another half-hour!' 

" 'Pretty fair, pretty fair/ said he, 'but he can't hold a candle to the men we used 
to have here.' 

"I looked at him pretty hard, and thinks I to myself: 'What sort of a chap are 
you, anyway?' Then I reached for my hat, and straightened up and said: 

" 'Come along down to the beach, I guess we want -some sunshine.' 

"Away we went, striding along the shore and drinking in the salt breeze, and I 
felt better and happier every minute. Standing on the sand and watching the big rol- 
lers chasing one another up the beach and breaking at our very feet, I exclaimed : 

" 'Now, that's the grandest sight on earth ! Can anything compare with that ?' 

"But my lugubrious friend was again shaking his head, and saying in doleful tones : 

" 'It's nothing to what it used to be.' 

"Well, I thought it was time for him and me to part company, so I said 'Good- 
morning,' and went off down the boardwalk alone. 

"The bishop and the morning preacher and this old ocean were all good enough 
for me." 

POETIC JUSTICE. 176 

A baker living in a village not far from Quebec bought the butter he used from a 
neighboring, farmer. 

One day he became suspicious that the butter was not of the right weight, and, 
therefore, decided to satisfy himself as to whether the farmer was honest or not. For 
several days he weighed the butter, and then found that the rolls of butter which the 
farmer brought were gradually diminishing in weight. This angered him so that he 
had the farmer arrested on a charge of fraudulent dealing. 

"I presume you have scales?" the judge said, inquiringly. 

"Yes, of course, your honor." 

"And weights, too, I presume." 

"No, sir." 

"How then do you manage to weigh the butter which you sell ?" 

"That's easily explained, your honor," replied the farmer. 

"When the baker commenced buying his butter of me, I thought I'd get my 
bread from him and it's the one-pound loaf I've been using as a weight for the butter 
I sell to him. If the weight of the butter has been wrong he has himself to blame, 
not me." 

A WOMAN'S CHEERFULNESS. 177 

Ten men and a woman landed in New York on November 6, after a terrible ex- 
perience. They had been on board a vessel of Nova Scotia, bound for Buenos Ayres. 
After leaving port, they had fair weather for thirty-five days, and had reached a point 
only fifteen degrees from the equator, when, without warning, their vessel was struck 
by a hurricane. It tore the sails to shreds and broke the masts, leaving jagged stumps 
twenty feet above the deck. The vessel was completely disabled and beyond control. 
Signals of distress were hoisted, and lights were burned at night, but they were not 



seen. Twenty-seven days they stayed on the crippled vessel, which drifted helplessly 
on the waves. They then decided to abandon the ship. The remaining provisions, little 
more than bread and water, were put on board the boat that the storm had spared, 
and the little party set out, hoping to reach land. Ten days and nights they were 
exposed to the weather before the lookout gladdened every one with the cry of "Land 
ahead." It proved to be Grenada, the most southern of the Windward Isles. They 
were hospitably received, and were sheltered and cared for until a passing steamer 
called at Grenada and brought them to New York. The crew say that during that ter- 
rible time of suspense and hardship, the strongest sank in despair. They would have 
completely lost heart and given up the struggle had it not been for the cheerfulness 
and courage of the only woman on board, the wife of the captain, a lady only twenty- 
three years old, whose untiring devotion and unwavering hope gave courage to all. 
Even a strong man could have been better spared from the boat than she, who cheered 
and encouraged the others. So much can the small and the weak do in the work of 
the world. 

God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are 
mighty (I. Cor. 1:27). 

"GOD DON'T CARE." 178 

"See that young Arab curled up in the doorway? That's 'Wicked Jim.' Little 
more than a kid, but he's been in prison fifteen times. Foxiest little thief in the city. 
He's a case for you." 

A policeman crossing a London street one chilly morning, met a city missionary 
and gave him this introduction to his new "case." 

The missionary thanked his informant, and immediately walked over to the shiv- 
ering boy. 

"Good morning, Jim! Had your breakfast?" 

a Nary a crumb." 

"Neither have I. Come on!" 

"What d' want o' me? I ain't been hookin' nothinV 

"Never mind. We'll go in here, and see if we are hungry. By and by we can 
talk." 

The gentleman led his suspicious captive into a restaurant, where the sight and 
smell of good cookery very soon produced their expected effect. Seated with his 
new friend, at a neat table in one of the alcoves, the ragged youngster expressed himself 
in a long whistle. 

A hot breakfast and a few kind inquiries soon loosened his tongue; but he was 
shy of "Sunday-school fellers," and frankly said so. 

" 'Taint no use. All the perlice knows Wicked Jim. Can't anybody make me any 
better?" 

"God can." 

"He don't care." 

"Yes, He does. He cares for all the Wicked Jims in the world. He brought things 
round so that I should happen along here and find you this morning; and He'll make 
a good boy and a good man of you, if you ask Him." 

"There ain't no way for me to git a livin' but just steal." 

"Tut, tut, ray lad ! Not so fast. We'll change all that. You give a good try yo*ir- 
self, and there's hands and hearts to help you up." 

Warmed and fed, and presently washed and clothed at the mission — for his res- 
cuer had no mind to let him slip away — the young vagabond looked in the glass and 
took hrs first lesson in self-respect. 

It was a step toward character. He went higher when the honest ways to "git a 
livin' " were opened to him. The touch of love .and goodness killed the notion that 
"God don't care." 



"READ YOUR OWN NAME IN." 179 

During one of his English meetings a lady came to Dr. Torrey asking, "Can you 
talk with me? I have no assurance that I am saved." 

The ever-ready Bible was turned over to John iii. 36. "Do you believe on Christ?" 
"I do not know." "Do you believe He died on the Cross, and bore your sins?" "I 
do not know." "Do you believe in His power to keep you from sinning? Have you 
asked God for Christ's sake to do this ? Have you got a real faith in Christ, that leads 
to absolute surrender? Have you surrendered all to Jesus?" "I have." Then read, 
'He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life?' Who does that verse say has 
everlasting life?" "He that believeth." "Who says so?" "God." "Is it sure?" "Yes." 
"Very well, what is sure?" "That he that believeth hath everlasting life." "Do you 
believe on the Son?" "I do." "What have you got?" "Oh, I do not feel I am saved." 
"I did not ask you what you felt. Suppose you had committed a crime, that you had 
been condemned, and that you were awaiting execution. Suppose that the King par- 
doned you, and that somebody brought the pardon, signed and sealed by the King. 
What would you know?" "I would know that I was pardoned." "How would you 
know it?" "Because I saw the document." "Well, here is God's document, and it 
says, 'hath everlasting life.' " "After you had seen the King's document, suppose some- 
one should say, Are you pardoned?" "I should say, Yes, because the document says 
so." "Do you feel pardoned?" "Very likely you would not; it would be so new, so 
sudden, so good, that you could not realize it. You would say, perhaps, that you did 
not feel it, but you knew. What does this document say, 'hath everlasting life.' Does 
it say he that feeleth so?" "No." "He that believeth;" is that a description of you? 
Read your own name in 'hath.' " "Oh," she cried, "I see it. I see it." 

THE PASSWORD. 180 

The following story is told in the Advance: 

"Mr. George H. Stuart, acting as the representative of the Christian Commission 
during the war, asked the colonel the password ; he wished to go out of the lines. 
'Chicago,' said the colonel. But the sentry said it was not the word, and came near 
shooting him in the night. 

"He went back to the colonel, who said : 'What a fool I was ! That was yester- 
day's word, I remember; today's is 'Massachusetts.' Mr. Stuart, after giving the right 
word, added : 

" 'And now my young friend, let me ask you if you know the password to Heaven?' 
'Thank God, I do, Mr. Stuart,' he said; T learned it from you in a Sunday-school class, 
years ago, and, I trust, have acted on it : 'The blood oi Jesus Christ cleanseth us from 
all sin.' " 

THE LOVE OF THE LAMB IS A MIGHTY LOVE. 181 

An English preacher recently said: 

Our love is so feeble, feeble even when it is strongest, unable to avert the pain, 
the sin, the doom from the dearest. Would God I had died for thee! Oh Absalom, 
my son, my son ! The grief and remorse of that cry ring down the centuries even to 
this hour. We love, and our love cannot redeem them. Often it seems to us that 
power is loveless, or even at strife with love. But in the Lamb power is love, and in 
the end the Universe shall know it. We are not left alone to fight this battle. Be- 
hind us are the reserves of Heaven, and the grace which will hold us up as Christ held 
up to the end of the hard day. 

Power is love — transports, transforms 

Who aspired from worst to best 
Sought the soul's world, spurned the worms' 

I have faith such end shall be; 



From the first, Power was — I knew 

Life has made clear to me 
That, strive but for closer view, 

Love were as plain to see. 

RAISINS FOR BULLETS. 182 

When urging the need of force and power in Christian work, Dr. Talmage once 
illustrated the subject by relating the following incident: 

When the Scottish Covenanters were at one time in battle, their ammunition gave 
out, and they were waiting for bullets. They expected a barrel of bullets. A barrel 
came down, but it was the wrong one, sent by mistake. It was a barrel of raisins. They 
knocked out the head of the barrel with intense eagerness, and then sat down in 
defeat. 

"O sirs," said Dr. Talmage, "in the church of God at this day we want less 
confectionery and more of the strength and trust and power of the omnipotent gospel — 
we want bullets, not raisins." 

A GRASP OF THE ALL-CONQUERING HAND. 183 

Amid the stress of a great battle, the Duke of Wellington ordered a young of- 
ficer to charge and take a most destructive battery crowning a hill. The difficulty of the 
undertaking was appalling. The officer looked toward the spot where the order would 
take him, then, turning to the Duke, said, "I can go, sir, if you will give me one 
grasp of your all-conquering hand." The grasp was given and he sped to his 
duty. 

The Christian need never lack for such inspiration. The hand of the Captain of 
our salvation is ever within our reach. 

THE COMING PROFESSIONAL. 184 

Mr. Moody once related an incident illustrating how he was first led to realize 
how "professional" he was growing toward those less fortunate in life than he. He 
was sent for by the mother of one of his Sunday school pupils, who had been ac- 
cidentally drowned. He went to the house and talked with the woman; told her he 
would see that a coffin was sent up, and that he would come on the day appointed to 
conduct the funeral. Then accompanied by his little daughter, he started for home. 
They walked in silence for a time, when the child said : "Papa, suppose we were very, 
very poor, and I had to go to the river every day to get wood; and suppose I should 
slip in and be drowned, wouldn't you be awful sorry?" 

Mr. Moody says it was then and there that he awoke to the fact that he was 
getting "professional." Folding his darling to his bosom with a strong embrace, and 
lifting his heart to God in prayer, he turned and retraced his steps. to the poor woman's 
door. On being admitted, he grasped that weeping mother's hand, wept as if his child 
and not hers had been snatched away by death, and got down to pray. This time profes- 
sionalism was gone ; now he really took a part in the "fellowship of her suffering." 

HOW ONE MAN SAVED SIX HUNDRED. 185 

Before the negro slaves in the British West Indies were emancipated, a regiment 
of soldiers were stationed near one of the plantations. A soldier offered to teach a 
slave to read, on condition that he would teach a second and a third, and so on. This 
he faithfully carried out, though severely flogged by the master of the plantation. Being 
sent to -another plantation, he repeated the same there, and when at length liberty was 
proclaimed throughout the island, and the Bible Society offered a New Testament to 
every negro who could read, it was found that the number taught through this one 
man's instrumentality was no less than six hundred. 



A STRIKING PARALLEL. 186 

Gambling by means of "penny-in-the-slot" machines has become one of the most 
dangerous of all the traps set by the devil for boys and young people generally. 
Jeremiah has a prophecy which covers the case of these evil inventions: 

"For among my people are found wicked men ; they watch, as fowlers lie in wait ; 
they set a trap, they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of 
deceit; therefore they are become great and waxen rich. They are waxen fat, they 
shine ; yea, they overpass in deeds of wickedness. . . . Shall I not visit for these 
things? saith the Lord. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" (Jen 
v. 26-29.) 

THE ROSE CURE. 187 

Roses as a cure for many of the little aches and pains of life, says The Chicago 
American, are advocated by those who believe our mental condition has much to do 
with our physical pains. It has been discovered that a rose will cure the headache. 
Its perfume soothes the nerves and the brain is rested by its color. Recline on a pil- 
low of roses if you can. If you cannnot do this, lie and look at a few of the flowers. 
Tie up your head with a rose perfume if you have it, and, like the famous London 
beauty, pull the flowers to pieces, sniff deeply the rose, let your eyes look long at the 
peculiar tint in its depths, and cure yourself. If you will give half an hour to this cure, 
you will find yourself much refreshed in every way. 

So spiritual unrest may be lulled into quiet by coming into contact with the beau- 
tiful spiritual blossoms which grow in the garden of God's Word. If when we are 
restless, and troubled, we meditate upon God's goodness, and read the great promises, 
we shall inhale the divine fragrance that will give us peace. 

NO STUFFING ALLOWED. 188 

The pride of James Gordon Bennett, the elder, in the great newspaper he had built 
up was proverbial, and he had a particular aversion to anything that savored of disre- 
spect on the part of his employes when speaking of its contents. 

One of his editorial writers ventured to compliment him one morning on the gen- 
eral character of that day's issue. 

"There was a lot of good stuff in the paper this morning, Mr. Bennett," he 
said. 

"Stuff?" exclaimed the editor. "Stuff? What do you mean?" 

"I mean the — the matter on the editorial page," replied the other, somewhat taken 
aback. 

"Then say so," rejoined his chief, with a frosty gleam in his eye. "If you value 
your job, young man, never call anything that goes into the New York Herald 'stuff* 
again as long as you live." 

That is a good illustration for the average man concerning his own life. We 
should do our best every time. The amount of padding that is put in robs many lives 
from being splendid, who might otherwise lead in usefulness. 

A HAPPY FATHER. 189 

An editor thus describes a father's meeting with his daughter at the train : 
On the long platform of the great railway station stood a portly and prosperous 
looking gentleman waiting for an incoming train. His sleek appearance showed that 
he was careful of his clothes, and his air of well satisfied dignity did not encourage 
undue familiarity. As the train rumbled into place and came to a stop, a crowd of 
boarding school girls, with great chatter and many delighted squeaks, began crowding 
tumultously from the cars and greeting with merry cries the friends who were waiting 
to welcome them home for the holidays. 

Suddenly from the middle of the merry throng sprang a good-sized whirlwind. 
It rushed toward the dignified gentleman who was calmly waiting. Her dress suit 



case flew one way and her umbrella another as she leaped upon him and clasped him 
about the neck with a hug which would have done credit to a cub bear. His hat flew 
off, his coat was torn open and he staggered under the impetuous force of the assault. 
Of the sleek and dignified person so lately standing calmly on the platform only a 
wreck was left. But he looked happy. 

How much it means when the Psalmist says "Like as a father pitieth his 
children." 

"WILL YOU BE THERE?" 190 

A Sunday school superintendent in New York stopped a little boy on the street 
and asked him if he would attend his school. The invitation was refused. He asked 
him if he would not come to hear the music and again it was declined. He told him 
of the illustrated pictures and the attractive books and the boy only continued to 
decline the pressing invitation. The superintendent was turning away with discour- 
agement when the boy cried after him, "Will you be there?" and when assured that 
he would, then said the boy, "I will come." It is a homely illustration but it teaches 
this lesson, that beyond the power of music or illustrated papers or books was the 
power of this enthusiastic Christian superintendent. It is when we are thus filled with 
the Spirit of Christ that the world will know that the Christ of Nazareth and Bethle- 
hem is not a myth but a living power. 

A HUSBAND WON BY PRAYER. 191 

The late Rev. Henry Simon used to tell how once at Westminster there came into 
his vestry a woman whose husband was a disgraceful man, and poured out a story of 
sorrow and pain, chiefly for the sake of the minister's sympathy. Mr. Simon listened, 
and then asked his visitor if she remembered the Syro-Phcenician woman and the cen- 
turion whose servant was ill. 

"Yes," she replied. 

"Well," Mr. Simon continued, "do you not think that you and I may believe for 
this hasband of yours?" 

The two knelt and prayed for the man, and those who have heard Henry Simon 
know what that prayer would be. 

The following Sunday evening Mr. Simon saw the man walk into Westminster 
Chapel, and take a seat in a corner. He came again and again, and finally 
asked to be admitted into the church. 

Years after Dr. Davies, of Yale, first heard Mr. Simon tell this story, the two 
met again. 

"Do you remember that incident?" the American minister asked. 

"Oh, yes," was the answer, "and you will be pleased to know that the man and 
his wife are still on the rolls of the church at Westminster." 

A GOOD WOMAN IN THE BACKGROUND. 192 

In 1780, just 122 years ago, Robert Raikes, a good man of Gloucester, England^ 
was spending much time and money in an effort to evangelize and reform the unfor- 
tunate inmates of English prisons, with meager and discouraging results. An earnest 
and practical little woman met him on a street in Gloucester, and calling his attention 
to the multitude of ignorant, wild and immoral children of the factory hands, seething 
and swarming on the streets said: "Mr. Raikes, instead of spending all of your spare 
time and money in trying to reform 'hardened jailbirds,' why don't you spend some 
of it in an endeavor to rescue these children before they become hardened criminals 
and the* hopeless inmates of jails?" He was overwhelmed with astonishment that 
such a thought had never entered his mind before. 

When Eli Whitney, experimenting with straight pins on the surface of a revolving 
cylinder, despaired of inventing the cotton gin, the good woman with whom he was 



boarding, spoke three words which revolutionized the industry of our Southland and 
made "Cotton King." And those three words were: "Crook the pins!" It was a 
man's hand which Paul saw in a vision beckoning him to Europe, but in reality it was 
a woman who first welcomed and gave him European hospitality in her own house 
and home. It was Barbara Heck, who jerked a deck of playing cards from the hands 
of the backslidden Wesleyan preacher and startled and started him to preaching the 
Gospel on the shores of a new world and introducing Methodism in the Western 
Hemisphere. And it was the faith, education, prayers, and training of Susanna Wesley 
in the hearts and minds of her children which made Methodism itself possible. 

BRIDGING A CHASM. 193 

Dr. Alexander McKenzie, in one of his sermons, tells a pretty story of Louis 
Agassiz, the great scientist. As a child Agassiz lived in Switzerland, on the border 
of a lake. He had a younger brother, and one day, the two lads started to cross the 
lake. It was frozen, and the ice looked safe enough, but their mother watched 
them. 

"The boys got on very well till they came to a crack in the ice, perhaps a foot 
wide. The mother could not call to them, although her heart failed her as she 
thought, 'Louis will get over well enough, but his little brother will try to step over 
and will fall in.' 

"As she watched, she saw Louis get down on the ice, his feet on one side of 
the crack, his hands on the other side, making a bridge of his body, and the little 
brother crept over him to the other side. Then Louis got up and they went on 
their way." 

It was like that Jesus Christ bridged the chasm for us all. 

"RIGHT UP TO DE HANDLE." 194 

A gentleman relates his experience with a little colored bootblack only thirteen 
years of age. He says: 

I could not help noting his right and just pride in his perfected work, and I said, 
encouragingly and approvingly : 

"You certainly do good work, my boy." 

"Yes, sah," he replied. "I loves to make 'em shine right up to de handle." 

Now this poor black boy had in him a strong element of success in life com- 
bined with a high ideal. His ambition to make the shoes of his patrons "shine 
right up to de handle" was as worthy an ambition as that of the artist who spends 
his life in the endeavor to paint a great picture. The boy's highest reward was not 
the money I had paid him; it was the beautiful perfection of his work. 

I felt interested in the boy who could take such pride in his humble occupation, 
and I said to him: 

"I suppose that some day you will be having a bootblacking establishment of 
your own." 

"Yes, sah," he said, "I is aimin' at dat very thing, sah; an' when I gits hit, hit'll 
be a place whar all de gemmen kin git de bes' shine in de city. Dat's what I is wurkin' 
fo', sah." 

It was, after all, a high ambition because it was an eager striving for perfection 
in one's work. It was a higher ambition than that of the boy who longs to acquire 
great wealth for wealth's sake alone. I do not think that I shall ever forget that 
little black boy and his swelling pride in doing the very best work it was possible 
for him to do. He will rise to the full height of his calling, and that is all that 
God expects any of us to do. 

SOULS IN DANGER. 195 

Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman uses this illustration in one of his recent sermons : 
One morning at breakfast there was a cry of fire. The family rushed from 



the house only to find that the house was burning slowly and that they could easily 
return and save some of the valuable furniture. One old sideboard in particular 
was an object of great value to them. The father, standing in front of the sideboard, 
pulled it and the boy behind it pushed with all their might. They got it to the door, 
but it stuck in the doorway and was so large that it filled it completely. The 
flames by this time were on the father and he must run for his life, but his boy 
was a prisoner. He stood outside the window and looked in and then did just 
what every father would have done: he took hold* of the iron bars and, pulling with 
superhuman strength, it would seem, broke away the stone casing above and below, 
and saved his boy. It has always seemed to me that this was a good illustration of 
that concern which would fill every soul did we realize that men without Christ 
were lost. 

I gave that illustration to a distinguished friend of mine and he said, "I will use 
it," and he did apparently with no effect. The more he enlarged upon it the more the 
people seemed to be amused. Walking home from the church at night with his 
wife he said, "Why was it that that illustration did not seem to grip anything?" 
and she said with a smile, "You forgot to say that the house was on fire." What 
a ridiculous thing it was for a father to be pulling away at the iron bars when 
the boy could easily have been liberated in some other way; and what a ridiculous 
thing it is for us to be in an agony about souls, to preach in season and out of 
season about rescuing souls unless we show that there is something from which 
they must be rescued. 

THE INDEPENDENT SPIRIT. 196 

She always had a good time, the other girls said of Jessie — said it half-enviously, 
some of them. Her home was an old-fashioned, rather shabby house, where the 
furnishing and style of life were of the plainest, but she welcomed her friends there 
cordially, and shared with them what she had without pretence or apology. She 
wore her plain clothes in the same way — prettily and daintily made, but inexpensive 
always — and made the most of whatever pleasures came in her way without regard 
to appearing in costly array. 

"You seem to get as much satisfaction out of everything as if you were independ- 
ently rich," said a discontented acquaintance one day. "I don't see how you can." 

"Well, if I am not independently rich, I am independently poor, and I suppose 
that's the next best thing," laughed Jessie. 

After all, it is the independence that counts rather than either the wealth or the 
poverty. The simplicity of standing for just what one is, without sham or pretence, 
lifts a burden of fret or anxiety, and leaves the spirit free. 

KEEPING IN TUNE. 197 

A musical instrument can only be kept in tune by keeping it in use. Our 
faculties get out of tune also by disuse. A great pianist said that if he failed in his 
practice even for one day, he noticed the difference in his playing; if for two days, 
his friends would be aware of it; and if he missed his hours at the instrument for 
three days the public would know it. The spiritual life is still more sensitive to 
lack of prayer and reverent meditation. 

THE BUND MAN'S REPLY. 198 

The Rev. John Mitchell relates the following incident of a noted infidel who, 
traveling in a car in which a minister was seated, at once commenced an argument 
with the clergyman in a loud tone that could be heard all over the car. Among 
the passengers was a blind man, who for a time listened attentively. Seeing he was 
giving attention, the infidel turned suddenly to him in a pause in the discussion and 
said: 

"Do you, sir, believe in a God, who has made this beautiful earth, and the sun 



to shine upon it, and who has adorned the heavens with myriads of stars, and yet- 
without any offense on your part, has deprived you forever of the power of beholding 
them?" 

"I am surprised, my dear sir," replied the man, "that you should ask me such a 
question. I do believe in the existence of God as firmly as I do in my own, and I 
could doubt the one as easily as the other. There is, however, one thing that strikes 
me as being very peculiar in what you have said. When you reason of God you do 
not seem to be governed by the same principles as when reasoning about men and 
the common affairs of every-day life." 

The infidel denied the inference, and the blind man continued: "Suppose, on 
reaching your home, and one entering your room, you find a lighted lamp upon the 
table — what will be your conclusion?" 

"Why," answered the infidel, with a sneer, "I shall conclude that some one 
placed it there." 

"Well, then, when you look into the heavens and see those innumerable lights 
of which you have spoken, why do you not come to the same conclusion, that some 
intelligent being placed them there?" 

OWNERSHIP IN EAGLES. 199 

Among the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona there is a property 
right in eagles. Each clan claims ownership in several eagle "nests, which may or 
may not be near the place where the clan lives. When the nests are distant from 
the villages where the Indians claiming them live, it has been found that the ancestors 
of these Indians came in former years from the localities where the nests now are, 
and they point to the fact that these nests are theirs as proof that they also, by 
inheritance, own the land round about them. 

Driven into new locations by marauding Navajos and Utes, these Pueblo Indians 
have steadily contracted their occupied territory, but they still visit the old nests, 
as their forefathers visited them before the white man came to Mexico. Some of 
the Pueblo Indians, the Zunis, for instance, keep eagles in cages and treat them as 
domestic fowl, but the most of the tribes procure their eagles by taking the young 
from the ancestral nests. These Indians keep turkeys also, but neither turkeys nor 
eagles are kept for food. With the feathers of the birds the Indian decorates himself 
and his "prayer sticks" on occasions of religious ceremony. The various tribes 
respect one another's property rights in certain nests and the birds which are hatched 
in them, and a heavy punishment is provided for an Indian killing an eagle not 
his own. 

Sometimes the nests are fifty miles from where the tribe lives, but investigation 
always shows that the tribe lived once where the nest is. Generations without number 
the eagle builds his nest in the same spot and rears his young there. So the title of 
the Pueblos reaches back into the twilight of American history. Those Pueblo Indians 
speak of their eagles as they do of their sheep, their dogs or their horses. Though 
the king of birds may be flying wild half a hundred miles from the Indian's abode, 
yet it is the Indian's eagle. 

This custom reminds one of that splendid Scripture in Isaiah which promises 
that "they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount 
up with wings as eagles." 

THE SHINING PROMISE. 2 o« 

A recent writer discussing the promises of the Bible, uses this comforting illus- 
tration : 

If we write with lemon juice the words will fade, leaving no trace; but in 
exposing the writing to heat every word comes out bold and clear. 

The promises of the Bible in like manner fade away and hide themselves till 



Ave pass through the fires of affliction. We read those promises in the sunny hours 
-of youth, and they do not have any special meaning to us. But when trouble comes, 
the passages that before seemed pale and dim as though written with invisible ink begin 
to glow with meaning. There is no commentator like experience, no teacher like 
sorrow. The promises look new to us when seen through our tears, as the familiar 
stars look new and strange when seen for the first time through a telescope. A wash 
of tears wonderfully clarifies the vision to see new meanings in God's Word. 

Life's declining years, too, make the promises appear the plainer, just as night 
when the shades gather throws the firmament with its milky way into brighter relief. 
Then the twenty-third Psalm is written anew — anew in patience and hope, while 
through the gloom with its premonition of earthly parting that wraps about the 
life are seen with greater clearness "Thy rod and staff they comfort me." 

COSTLY FORGETFULNESS. 201 

Many persons have been obliged to plead guilty of forgetting to do a promised 
•service, but few have paid so heavy a penalty for the lapse of memory as has been 
paid by a clerk in the postoffice of a country town in New York state. An elderly 
bachelor of considerable wealth resided at some distance from the town. He had 
a large number of friends whom he delighted to entertain at his hospitable mansion. 
A few years ago he made his will, in which he made several of these friends legatees 
to the extent of three thousand dollars cash. Among them was the postoffice clerk 
in question. A few months ago he was visiting the old gentleman, and, when he 
left, he readily undertook to mail a letter to a Chicago firm, which his host handed 
to him. It happened that the letter was important, and when the Chicago house 
failed to act on the instructions contained in the letter the writer was indignant, and 
denounced them. They replied that they had not received any such letter, but shortly 
afterwards wrote again, saying that it had just, been delivered, and enclosed the 
envelope, the stamp on which showed that it had not been mailed until three weeks 
after it had been handed to the postoffice clerk. The old gentleman did not complain 
to his forgetful friend, but he promptly made a new will, in which the postoffice 
clerk's name did not appear among those of the legatees. It was a severe punishment, 
but the testator probably thought it was an indication that his friend was not so 
mindful of him as he should have been. Little things often serve as indications of 
character. 

TWO WAYS OF DEALING WITH STRANGER'S. 202 

This story sets forth the two methods of conducting a city church, with remarka- 
ble clearness. The one will always be empty and the other always full. The one use- 
less, the other useful: 

A young man moved from a small village to a large city. He knew everybody 
and was active in the church in the place where he had grown to manhood. The 
first Sunday he spent in his new home, he was homesick for the village church, 
where he had worshiped and worked. He entered a large and beautiful church of 
his own faith within a few doors of his residence. Not a person recognized him. 
He took a seat by the door, and at the close of the service passed out without a word 
of welcome or greeting from any one. Sick at heart and deeply hurt, he related his 
experience, with tears, to his mother. She encouraged him to try again and to try 
somewhere else. 

In the evening he sought another church of his own denomination many blocks 
away. As he crossed the street in front of the church he paused under the gaslight 
at the. street corner trying to muster up courage enough to enter. A young man 
hurried to him and extended his hand, with a frank smilej spoke in a bright and 
cheery manner: 

"You are a stranger, I see." 



"Yes, sir," replied the country boy. 

"I am glad to see you ; come right in." 

As they entered the door, the sidewalk watcher called another young man and 
said: 

"Here's a stranger. See that he gets a good seat and is made acquainted with 
some one." 

He then returned to his post on the sidewalk. The young man took the stranger 
by the hand and said heartily: 

"You are welcome. Come with me." 

An usher was called. The stranger was introduced. He was taken to a seat. A 
hymn book, open at the page of the hymn which was being sung, was placed in his 
hand. He was urged to feel at home and not hurry out after the service. At the 
close of the sermon the usher said : 

"I see you have a good voice and like to sing; do you read music?" 

"Yes, sir," replied the stranger. 

"The young fellows in our church have a male chorus and I know they will be 
glad to have you join them. May I introduce the leader to you?" 

Before a reply could be given, the leader was called and introduced. A cordial 
invitation was extended to the stranger to meet the young men and sing with them 
at their next rehearsal. The stranger went home with a glow in his heart that again 
brought tears to his eyes as he related his next experience to his mother, but they 
were tears of joy. As a matter of course, the stranger was welcomed, encouraged 
and captured. He is now one of the most active workers in the great church. It 
need not be said that this church is the religious home of a mighty army of devoted, 
enthusiastic young men who delight in doing what they can to fill every seat in the 
large auditorium. 

A HEART FULL OF FIRE. 203 

The Rev. C. H. Spurgeon once related a story which illustrates the necessity of 
feeling in our inmost souls the truth which we would impress upon others. In relating 
the incident, Mr. Spurgeon says: 

I stepped out, as one of the speakers was delivering a very pretty oration, and 
I went into a neighboring house to speak with a woman who wished to join the 
church. It was not in London. When I entered the house, there was the husband 
horribly drunk; he had got his wife up in a corner and was with all his might trying 
to beat and bruise her, 1 and he was even tearing her arms with his nails till the 
blood freely flowed from her arms and face. Two or three friends rushed in and 
dragged him away. She said she had endeavored, in all meekness, to persuade him 
to allow her to go to the house of God that night, and the only reason why he ill- 
treated her was because he said she would always be going to that place of worship. 

When I had seen that sight and looked on the poor, bleeding woman, with tears 
in her eyes, I went back into the place and spoke like a man who had got his heart 
and his whole body full of fire. I could not help it — I was all on flame against the 
sin of drunkenness, and sought, with all my might, to urge the members of the 
church to do all they could to scatter the light of the Gospel in a neighborhood 
which was so dark and black and filthy and abandoned. 

And I think it would do all of us good when we are about to preach if we were 
sometimes to be dragged through some of the worst parts of London to let us see 
the wickedness of it. It would do our Sunday school teachers good, many of them, 
for they v/ould then be more in earnest with their children, and I think it would do 
good to some of our old friends, who sit and sleep almost all the service through, 
and are never much more than sleeping partners in the concern. If they did but 
know how the battle was going on — how tough the struggle and how stern the 
conflict, they would wake up from their slumbers and go forth to the battle and 



stand shoulder to shoulder and deal blow after blow against the common enemy of 
our Lord Jesus Christ and of the welfare of man. 

CONSECRATING OUR GIFTS TO JESUS. 204 

The Rev. G. Campbell Morgan has this striking illustration about Consecration: 
If you have entered into this life of fellowship with Him, no single coin of your 
wealth or talent of your personality have you any right to call your own or offer 
Him a tenth of; the whole belongs to Him. And you have no right to hide the talent 
and say the Master is austere. Said a young man to me a little while ago in Chicago, 
"I have decided to follow Christ wholly, and consequently I have given up painting." 
I said, "You have no right to rob Christ of a gift God bestowed upon you in creation ; 
get out your palette, bring back your brushes, mix your colors in the light of the 
heavenly vision, and fling a picture on the canvas for the sake of Christ." He who 
emptied heaven to redeem you asks but little when He asks that you should empty 
your whole life out in sacrificial service for Him. 

ARE YOU A CHANNEL? 205 

Dr. J. E. Carson, of New York City, said to his congregation one Sunday morning 
that every saved man was either a channel through which the Spirit of God was 
Teaching the unsaved, or a barrier preventing the Spirit from doing His work. 

One of the trustees of the church said to himself on the way home, "Am I a 
channel or a barrier?" That night he could not sleep, and cried out, "Oh, Lord, 
make me a channel!" Almost the first thought that came was that there were some 
men in his employ to whom he had never spoken a word about Jesus Christ. He 
confessed his fault, and told the Lord that if He would make him a channel he 
would speak to these men. 

The first man that entered his office the next morning was his confidential clerk, 
who had been with him eighteen years. The merchant said, "Edward, haven't I been a 
good employer to you?" "Yes, sid." "Have not I treated you well?" "Yes, sir. 
Why, sir, what have I done," said the clerk, "that you are going to discharge me?" 
"Edward, I am on my way to Heaven, and I want you to go with me." Tears came 
into the eyes of both men as Edward took the merchant's extended hand, and said, 
■"I will, sir." Doctor Carson afterwards received eleven men into his church because 
this trustee had consented to be a channel for the Holy Spirit. 

WEAVING THE HAPPINESS ROBE. 206 

There is a story of a dear, quaint old lady, whose days were full of kindness, 
and whose hands were seldom idle. She was showing some treasures of handiwork, 
and among other things brought out a soft, silken quilt, daintily stitched and finished. 

"Why, auntie, you did not make this whole pretty slumber robe out of just those 
odds and ends of silk you were gathering?"' 

She nodded and laughed. 

"There are bits enough in the world, child, to make almost anything we want, if 
only we are willing to save the bits and take pains to put them together," she said. 
"The reason for most of our doings without is that we want our material all in one 
piece — yards and yards of it so that we can lay on any pattern we like and cut it 
out easily. But it doesn't come that way usually. Strength, leisure, money, education — 
we seldom get any of them in the lengths we want, but putting the bits together will 
work wonders if only we learn how to do it. 'Slumber robe?' Is that the new name 
for this kind of quilt? Well, the happiness robe is made in the same way, out of 
the bright little odds and ends that come to us daily." 

ONLY LOVING THEM. 207 

A baby carriage stood in front of a small shop. In it slept a pretty dimpled 
baby. A drowsy puppy lay on the pillow, its black nose close to the baby's cheek. By 



the carriage stood a ragged little waif, dirty, and but half-clad. She stroked in 
turn the baby and the puippy. A lady, passing by, noticed the strange picture — 
the beautiful baby, the little dog, the ragged child. The baby's mother was in the 
shop. 

"Are you caring for these?" said the lady to the waif. A smile lit up the 
dirty little face. 

"No, please, ma'am, I'm only loving them." 

"I GAVE THEM MYSELF." 208 

A successful mother, talking with a friend the other day, said: 
Said a mother to me one day, "When my children were young I thought the 
very best thing I could do for them was to give them myself. So I spared no pains to 
talk with them, to read to them, to teach them, to pray with them, to be a loving 
companion and friend to my children. I had to neglect my house often. I had no 
time to indulge myself in many things which I should have liked to do. I was so 
busy adorning their minds and cultivating their hearts' best affections that I could not 
adorn their bodies in fine clothes, though I kept them neat and comfortable at all 
times. 

"I have my reward now. My sons are ministers of the gospel; my grown-up 
daughter is a Christian woman. I have plenty of time now to sit down and rest 
and plenty of time to keep my house in order, plenty of time to indulge myself, 
besides going about my Master's business wherever He has need of me. I have a 
thousand beautiful memories of their childhood to comfort me. Now that they have 
gone out into the world, I have the sweet consciousness of having done all I could to 
make them ready for whatever work God calls them to do." 

LOVE FOR THE MOTHER. 209 

Margaret Bottome tells this beautiful story which has a message in it for many 
sons and daughters as well as fathers and mothers: 

There are some pictures too sad almost to look upon, and one of these is to see 
a wife and mother who has laid her life down for her family, when slowly fading 
out of sight receiving at last the tenderness — the softened love tones of those most 
dear to her, for which she had hungered for many a long year. Still, better even so 
late than not at all ; but do you not think with me, it is better to recognize our angels 
now? Will you not act on this suggestion? I met a beautiful woman the other 
day who reminded me of a time when at a seaside resort I gave a talk to young 
girls — this beautiful girl had just come to remain a week. I talked that day about 
our mothers, how much they were to us, and how we should miss them when they 
left us, for, of course, they could not always be with us, and how we should regret the 
little attentions we had missed giving them. This beautiful girl, an only child, took 
it all in; she said she could hardly wait for me to get through. She left on the next 
train for home, and startled her mother by her sudden return. Her mother exclaimed, 
"What is the matter?" "Oh, mamma," she said, "I have come back to be attentive 
to you. You won't die, will you, till I am a perfect daughter?" Long after that I met 

that mother on a train and she said to me, "I always thought L was about as 

good as she could be, but from that day she returned from the sea that summer she 
was absolutely perfect." That mother has gone on and that daughter is now a 
mother herself, and she has not to regret that she was not everything a daughter 
could be to a mother. There are too many daughters who act as if their mothers 
were their servants. I am not talking to mothers just now, or I should say, be 
careful! What some might call your unselfishness may ruin your daughter, and she 
in turn, ruin others. 

A WOMAN WHO LOST HER LIFE FOR HER JEWELS. 210 

A melancholy incident was recently reported from Passaic, New Jersey. A large 



brick house occupied by three families caught fire. It was discovered early in the 
morning before any of the inmates had left their beds. It started in the basement 
and spread from front to rear before they were awakened. When they heard the alarm 
they found that the way of escape by the stairs was cut off, as they were already 
blazing. They went to the windows in the front, and their eyes were soon glad- 
dened by seeing the fire engines come to the scene. The firemen reared their ladders 
against the house and began taking the people down one at a time. The safety of 
all seemed assured, and indeed it was thought at first that every one had been rescued; 
but, later, one of the ladies remembered that while they were waiting for their turn 
at the ladder, her friend ran to her room to save her watch and rings, which in her 
hurry she had left behind. She thought she would have plenty of time to go and 
return before the ladder was taken away. She was, however, not among the saved, 
and as the house was then a seething mass of flames, it was vain to think of rescuing 
her from death. Her charred body was found among the ruins after the fire was 
extinguished. Everyone can see that she was foolish to imperil her life to save her 
jewelry; but how many there are who, like the young ruler, are committing the 
infinitely greater folly of imperiling their souls rather than lose their property. 
He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions (Matt. 19:22). 

THE WEIGHT OF THE ROPE. 211 

That great geologist, Professor Agassiz, was in the habit of going through the 
mountains of Switzerland accompanied by his attendants, who would let him down 
the side of the great precipices by means of a rope and basket, that he might carry 
on his work of discovery. They were always instructed to weight him before the 
descent began so that they could be sure of his being safely lifted up at the end of 
his day's work. 

But one day the descent was deeper than ever, and they let out all the nope 
fastened to the basket. When the day's work was done and the signal was given to let 
him up he could not be raised, and it was necessary for the attendants to make 
their way up the mountain and secure additional help. When the professor was at 
last raised, they found out that the reason why they could not lift him was because, 
while they had tested his weight as he stood in the basket they had forgotten to 
take into account the weight of the rope. 

It is thus that it becomes a difficult thing for one to be a Christian after he has 
constantly refused to accept God's mercy, for every time he refuses, at the next 
invitation he must pull against the last refusal. "Today if ye will hear His voice 
harden not your heart." 

A MODERN HERO. 212 

A young banker, a member of the Church of Christ, was called upon to respond 
to a toast at the State Bankers' Association banquet, in Indianapolis. He was asked 
to speak on behalf of the rising generation — the younger bankers of Indiana. He did 
so in a very honest, manly and straightforward manner. At the close of his speech 
he proposed to drink a health to the older bankers of the state, whose wise counsel 
and kindly consideration had so aided the younger men in their efforts; and there 
in the presence of 200 guests, the wealthiest and most fashionable of Indiana's people, 
who had been sipping costly champagne and Rhine wine from thin and delicate 
glasses, this young business man, in his maiden speech, dared to say: "I propose that 
we drink a health to the older bankers of the state, and that we drink it in clear, 
cold, pure water!" Every glass was raised, and as they drank pure water, every 
guest felt the force of the object lesson. It took courage to teach that lesson, but it 
was well taught. 



A WOMAN'S VICTORY. 213 

This beautiful story from the southern mountains teaches the old, old lesson of 
the power of goodness incarnate in a human life: 

A young minister was traveling on horseback through a mountain district. One 
day he noticed groups of people coming from every direction, many of them having 
evidently walked a long distance. It was not Sunday, yet these people were dressed in 
Sunday garb, and everywhere was the deepest solemnity. In response to the inquiry 
if a protracted meeting was going on, a mountaineer answered : 

"Naw, mister, but Miss Margaret's dead." 

"Miss Margaret?" the stranger asked, inquiringly. 

"You'uns don't know Miss Margaret? She was the best woman ever lived an* 
she's dead." There were tears in the man's eyes. 

"Are all these people going to the funeral?" 

"Deed they is, mister; it'll be the biggest funeral ever seen in these parts." 

Deeply interested, the minister attached himself to one of the silent groups, and 
passed on with the long procession. It was a never-to-be-forgotten scene. 

The meeting-place was a plain, rough school-house. The cheap, plain coffin, the 
poorly dressed throng, were all forgotten as the stranger gazed upon the still face 
of the girl lying in her last sleep. It was not a beautiful face, but it wore, even in 
death, a look of high resolve and self-forgetfulness that thrilled the looker-on to the 
depths of his soul. The throngs that gathered round, beheld that fact with streaming 
eyes. 

Who was she? What was she? Only the teacher of that humble, mountain 
school. She had come, a stranger, among these rude, ignorant people. For the 
love of Christ she had labored in season and out of season to teach the children, 
and also their elders, the better ways they had never known. Before she had been 
among them six months, the houses were in better repair, and kept in a cleaner, more 
home-like fashion. The rough manners were softened; kindness and neighborly 
love were manifest as never before, the Bible became a well-read, beloved Book. 
Many a soul had been led to Jesus by her simple words, and her beautiful, unselfish 
life. 

And now she was dead, leaving her flock bereft. Not one in all that company 
was her kindred, save as they were brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Never 
was Queen more truly mourned. Never granted truer honor, than this humble* 
quiet girl, who entered one of earth's dark corners, made it glorious with the 
knowledge of Him, who is the "Light of the World." 

A GREAT PAINTER'S CONVERSION. 214 

One of the most wonderful conversions in modern times was that of J. J. Tissot, 
the great painter who died in 1902. He was a man of fashion and frivolity, and 
immensely popular as a painter. This is Tissot's account of his conversion: 

"It came about in a mysterious way — one that I do not pretend to understand. 
I was then painting a series of fifteen pictures, to be called 'La Femme a Paris,' repre- 
senting the pursuits of the society woman of the gay capital. At that time it was 
fashionable to sing in the choir of some great church, and I wished to make a study 
for my picture, The Choir-Singer.' For this purpose I went to the Church of St. 
Sulpice during mass, more to catch the -atmosphere for my picture than to worship. 
But I found myself joining in the devotions, and as I bowed my head and closed 
my eyes I saw a strange and thrilling picture. It seemed to me that I was looking 
at the ruins of a modern castle. The windows were broken, the cornices and drains 
lay shattered on the ground; cannon-balls and broken bowls added to the debris. 
And then a peasant and his wife picked their way over the littered ground; wearily 
he threw down the bundle that contained their all, and the woman seated herself 
on a fallen pillar, burying her face in her hands. Her husband, too, sat down,. 



"but, in pity for her sorrow, strove to sit upright, to play the man even in misfortune. 
And then there came a strange Figure gliding towards these human ruins over 
the broken remnants of the castle. Its feet and hands were pierced and bleeding, 
its head was wreathed with thorns, while from its shoulders fell an Oriental cloak 
inscribed with the scenes, the Fall of Man, the Kiss of Judas. And this Figure, 
needing no name, seated itself by the man, and leaned its head upon his shoulder, 
seeming to say, more by the outstretched hands than in words, 'See, I have been 
more miserable than you ; I am the solution of all your problems ; without me civiliza- 
tion is a ruin.' The vision pursued me even after I had left the church. It stood 
between me and my canvas. I tried to brush it away, but it returned insistently. 

"It was the Christ. . 

"I went out of the church in a dream. Here, I thought, is a grand theme; here 
is a picture. I tried to put aside the thought. I must finish my series; I have 
no time; I am not a man to paint sacred pictures. Still, I could not return to my 
usual work. The vision I had seen possessed my eyes by day and by night. In time I 
was seized with a fever, and even when I recovered the vision still dwelt within 
my soul. I had to paint it. I did it — it was the picture called Inward Voices — 
but I fell short of my ideal, as men always must. But still I gave shape to the 
vision of Him who died to succour all, even the lowliest of men and women. 

"After this it was impossible to return to society pictures. I determined to 
paint Christ Himself as I thought He ought to be painted. There seemed to me some- 
thing lacking in all the pictures intended for Christ. They were powerful, they were 
affecting, but they were types of the Christ of the sixth, the tenth, the fourteenth, 
the sixteenth century, but not one of the real Christ of the first century, the Christ 
who made the centuries. I decided there was but one way to reach Him. I must 
go to the Holy Land. No sooner did I make the resolution than I departed; and 
then came the supreme struggle. 'How can I dare,' I said to myself, 'I, the painter 
of follies, to approach that holiest of subjects, THE Redeemer?' 

"I Cleansed My Heart, 
I laved my soul with purity, I felt new strength and a firm resolve. When at last 
I set foot on the sacred soil," M. Tissot continues, "when I looked upon the scenes 
consecrated to Christendom for all time by the Presence, I often found tears in 
my eyes, my hand shook, I had to pause to recover my self-control." 

THE RECEPTION INTO HEAVEN. 215 

Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman has this introduction to his sermon on "The Twelve 
Gates" : 

When La Fayette last visited this country the people gave him a royal reception. 
A fleet of vessels went out to meet him, the band played "Hail to the Chief," and 
the national music of France, and it is told that he was unmoved. 
f As he came ashore land and water trembled with the power of artillery. Old 
soldiers saluted him as they shouted his welcome, and he was still unmoved. With 
waving banners and under triumphal arches he was taken to Castle Garden, where 
most of the great men of the nation were gathered together to give him greeting, 
and he was still not moved. But when he had taken his seat in the great amphi- 
theatre, and when the curtain was lifted he saw before him a perfect representation 
of the place in France where he was born and brought up, and when he saw the 
old home so filled with tender memories, the home where his father and mother had 
lived and died, it is said that the great man was touched, and, bowing his face in 
his hands, he wept like a child. If I could only draw aside the veil which separates 
the seen from the unseen, so that you could behold that city which hath foundations, 
there would be no need for me to preach, for in the very thought of heaven you 
would he almost overwhelmed. 



LOVING MEN FOR JESUS' SAKE. 216 

Archdeacon Sinclair puts in a very beautiful way our privilege of loving and 
serving our fellowmen because they belong to God : 

Who is there among us who has not some little secret drawer or box with 
careful lock, and sometimes we steal alone to our room, and unfasten that little 
hiding-place which looks so common, and take out some treasure which is perhaps 
more precious to us than gold. What is it? Only perhaps a little lock of hair, only a 
withered violet, only possibly a faded packet of old letters, quite cut of date, only 
perhaps a little baby's shoe. Yet there are old voices and memories connected with 
those slight things which make their value to us quite inestimable. And as we look at 
them the sunny scenes come back of the days that are no morie, and there is a 
magic in them which surpasses the wand of the magician. We love them for the sake 
of that dear one to whom they once belonged, to whom we feel they still belong. 
So should it be with the things that belong to God, the men whom He has created in 
His own image. They belong to Him, they are His, they speak to us of Him, 
they are living witnesses to us of His love and providence and care. Him we 
cannot see, but we can see the human creatures whom He has made. Them we 
must love, because we love Him. Them we must pity, because He pities them. 
Them we must think for, and feel for, and pray for, and labor for, because He, cur 
tender heavenly Father, is working for them, too, and slumbers not nor sleeps in 
His care for their souls and bodies. 

A WELCOME LIFE-BOAT. 217 

News of a fatal wreck comes from Point Arena, Cal. The people on that part 
of the coast noticed, a few days ago, that boards and boxes and other wreckage 
were being washed in fragments upon the beach. There was nothing to indicate the 
wreck of a vessel besides these articles, but there could be no question that they had 
come from some ship that had been broken up not far away. A terrific storm was 
raging and the sea was so high early in the day that it was impossible to launch 
a boat from the shore. Toward evening it slightly moderated, and two men, at 
imminent risk of life, volunteered to go out and see if there were any lives in peril. 
Their boat was driven back twice and almost swamped, but eventually they suc- 
ceeded in reaching the scene of the wreck. It was a perilous work and their families 
and friends declared it was suicidal, but they were brave men with heroic hearts and 
strong arms and they persevered while those on shore watched and prayed for 
their safety. After an absence of about two hours they returned with two men 
whom they had found upon a raft. The rescued men told a sad story of death 
and disaster. They belonged to the steamer Casper bound from San Francisco for 
Usal. Shortly after midnight she struck on a reef, and a few minutes afterwards 
capsized. Her entire crew of fifteen men were washed off. The -two men were 
near together, and when some wreckage floated near them they drew it together 
and roughly lashed it. They climbed upon it, and for over fourteen hours had 
drifted until rescued by the brave lifeboat men. The raft had kept them from drowning 
and they were very thankful for it, but they were glad to leave it when the lifeboat 
came to them. So it is with people who are striving to save themselves by their own 
righteousness. When salvation through Christ is offered to them, they gladly cease 
their struggle and trust themselves to him. 

"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me? * * * I thank God 
through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 7:24, 25). 

A RAILROAD MAN'S PRAYER. 218 

The story is told of an old railroad worker who was converted, and became an 
earnest Christian. Not long afterwards, his pastor asked him to lead in prayer. 



Naturally the language of his calling, which has been on his lips for so many- 
years, came to him in his address to God, and this is the way he worded it: 

"O Lord, now that I have flagged thee, lift up my feet from the rough road 
of life and plant them safely on the deck of the train of thy salvation. Let 
me use safety lamp known as prudence, make all the couplings in the train 
with the strong link of thy love, and let my hand-lamp be the Bible. And, 
Heavenly Father, keep all the switches closed that lead off on sidings, 
especially those with a blind end. O Lord, if it be thy pleasure, have 
every semaphore block along the line show the white light of hope, that I may 
make the run of life without stopping. And, Lord, give us the ten commandments 
for a schedule; and when I have finished the run, on schedule time, pulled into the 
great, dark station of death, may thou, the Superintendent of the universe, say, 
'Well done, thou good and faithful servant; come and sign the pay-roll and receive 
your check for eternal happiness.' " 

WHEN THE TIDE CAME IN. 219 

Winifred A. Iverson has a beautiful poem comparing the coming in of the tide, 

lifting the ships on its bosom, to the coming of the Holy Spirit into our hearts. 
It is full of spiritual instruction: 

Black and foul the harbour lay, 

While no waves their way could win; 
But it gleamed, transformed and gay, 

When the tide came in. 

Motionless the vessels lay 

Locked the harbour-mouth within; 
Stranded there, and thus to stay 

Till the tide came in. 

All my life disordered lay 

Graceless and begrimed with sin; 
Oh ! the change, that hour of day 

When God's tide flowed in. 

At its ease my small craft lay 

Cramped a narrow space within; 
But it pulsed and sped away 

When God's tide flowed in. 
***** 

Yea ! the Holy Spirit came, 

His renewings to begin; 
Leaving nothing quite the same — 

Thus God's tide flowed in! 

PRAISE GOD THE LORD. 22© 

In some parts of the Alps it is not unusual for the shepherds to use their famous 
horns, for a purpose other than that of making the ordinary calls. When the sun 
is setting, a shepherd, on a peak, may put the horn to his mouth and shout, "Praise 
God the Lord." The . message rings through the mountains, and is re-echoed from 
the neighboring' heights. Another shepherd will respond with the same words, 
and the ^shout of triumph, "Praise God the Lord," may pass from mountain to moun- 
tain, for perhaps a quarter of an hour during the period of sunset. If in their 
happy surroundings, the Alpine shepherds can shout for joy, small wonder if the 
shepherds of Bethlehem returned from seeing the Saviour, glorifying and praising 



God, even as the host had said, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good 
•will toward man." 

LACK OF CHRISTIAN ENTHUSIASM. 221 

A minister, speaking recently at a public meeting, referred to a deacon he had 
known while in a country pastorate. He was a worthy man, but quite devoid of en- 
thusiasm in religious matters. When, however, a Parliamentary election was pending, 
he busily canvassed the whole district, and, on the day of the poll, drove a number of 
electors from a neighboring village. In political affairs the deacon was filled with ex- 
citement, while in religious matters he displayed no enthusiasm whatever. To visit the 
polling booth he placed his trap at the disposal of all the villagers, though it never 
occurred to him to assist the old folk to God's house. If we were but to place some 
of our muscular or business enthusiasm at God's service, His work would make more 
progress. 

THE MOUTH FILLED WITH PRAISE. 222 

When William Carey was in India, one of his most notable converts was a "holy" 
man of Calcutta, who had not spoken a word for four years. His self-imposed silence 
was on account of a vow he had taken, not to open his mouth. Dr. Carey induced him 
to read some tracts on Christianity, and he was persuaded to renounce his vow and 
make use of his God-given speech. When we have been led to Christ, and have seen 
Him, then it is we should find our voices. 

THE SAINTS NOT ALL DEAD. 223 

Rev. Dr. J. S. Gilbert has this interesting series of illustrative suggestions about 
modern saints: 

A boy applied to a city merchant for a situation. Incidentally he mentioned that he 
attended St. Luke's Sunday-school. 

"St. Luke?" said the merchant. "Does he carry on the Sunday-school?" 

"Why, no," answered the boy, with evident disgust at such deplorable ignorance; 
"the saints are all dead." 

The boy's mistake was a common and not unnatural one. In a literal sense it is 
true. One must be dead before he can have a place in the formal and official calendar 
of saints. But not all the saints have been canonized; nor are they all dead. There 
are saints of whom the world has never heard, and in whose honor no church is ever 
likely to be named — men and women who are bearing heavy burdens and wearing unseen 
the crown of thorns. No halo surrounds their brow, no poet sings their praise, and no 
artist glorifies them in marble or upon canvas. 

There is the mother broken in health and spirits, with a family of little ones to care 
for, and having a dissolute and worthless husband. God alone knows how hard she 
toils and how much she suffers. There is that poor, patient, bedridden sufferer, year 
after year bearing her burden of pain, and growing sweeter and stronger all the while, 

Far out on the frontier is the home missionary, on meagre fare and with threadbare 
coat, preaching the Gospel in rough mining camps and small settlements, while the 
faithful wife at home mends and patches, pinches and saves, that there may be fire upon 
the hearth and food upon the table. 

Our idea of sainthood is different from that of former days. The old-time saint 
was mostly intent upon saving his own soul. He fled to the desert, dwelt in a cave, 
and dozed and dreamed the hours away, and the more dirty and wretched his personal 
appearance the greater degree of sainthood was he supposed to have attained. 

The modern saint is one who serves and gives his life and thought for others. 
Many such may be found. Every paper records some heroic act of rescue, some noble 
deed of benevolence. There is the Red Cross nurse upon the field of battle, the Sister 
of Charity moving about in the quiet ward, the engineer who gives his life that the 
passengers may be saved. 

No. the saints are not all dead. 



"A STRANGER AND YE TOOK ME IN." 224 

The great Dutch steamer "Spaarndam" had been but a few days out, with her head 
set for New York, when Gretna Burkmeier fell dead in the steerage cabin, leaving 
Joseph and little Ursula entirely alone. Their father had been dead for two years, 
and now this healthy-looking young mother, who was going to the New World for 
their sakes, to give them a better chance in life, had been taken, too. 

She must have had a feeling that her life might end suddenly, for on the very first 
day of the voyage she had said to Joseph and Ursula : "If I am taken from you, little 
ones, put your trust in the Heavenly Father, He will come and be your friend." 

Now, indeed, she was gone, and the children trustfully waited for the Heavenly 
Father to come to their help. He was coming, though the "Spaarndam" was in sight 
of New York before His help came. And then it was not through a great white angel, 
as Ursula, at least, had expected, but by the kindness of one of their fellow-passengers, 
a woman with eight children of her own, who was following her husband to Lansing, 
where he had made a little start. 

"Come with me, my dears," she said to the orphans; "where there are eight 
mouths already, two more will not matter much. The house-father is a good man; he 
will not scold — at least, not much — when he sees what I have done." And the children 
went willingly with their new mother. 

"I say, Tom," said the captain to his first mate, "how much Bible have you got 
stowed aloft?" 

"Not as much as might be," answered Tom, looking surprised. "What sarmon can 
1 fetch ye capt'n?" 

The captain jerked his thumb back to the little orphans sitting among their new 
brothers and sisters. 

"That's the kind that's going to hear Him say, T was a stranger, and ye took me 
in.' You mark my words, Tom; if you're on hand up there yourself, you'll find my 
words come true." 

THE TESTING TIME. 225 

"It is wonderful how much of our goodness is due to the lack of temptation," said 
a wise woman recently. "We plant our little virtues in some warm soft soil, some at- 
mosphere of comfort where they are sheltered from storm and stress, , and they grow 
into hothouse luxuriance and beauty. We never doubt their vigor or genuineness until 
something deprives them of their shelter and leaves them where the blasts of trial beat 
upon them. 

"I thought myself a strong, reasonable, self-controlled woman, just and tolerant 
toward others, sweet-tempered and unselfish. Oh, no, I never said so, of course, but 
that was the estimate of my friends, and I secretly accepted it. There was little trouble 
in living up to it in the dear home atmosphere of love and appreciation. 

"But when a sudden change came to my life, when I was where half-veiled distrust 
took the place of the old tender loyalty, where petty jealousies and clashing interests 
made themselves felt, and many things that had long been considered mine of right 
were called in question, then — ah, well ! I discovered that there was a deal of bitterness, 
morbid weakness, anger, and selfishness, left in my composition. I was weak in ways 
I had not deemed possible, and scarcely less bitter than the change in outward circum- 
stances was the revelation of myself." 

GOD OUR ALL. 226 

Some unknown poet puts strongly in these lines the completeness of our life if we 

fully trust God : 

Be Thou the well by which I lie and rest; 

Be Thou my tree of life, my garden ground; 



Be Thou my home, my fire, my chamber blest, 
My book of wisdom, loved of all the best ; 

O, be my friend, each day still nearer found, 

As the eternal days and nights go round! 

Nay, nay! — Thou art my God, in whom all loves are bound! 

A HERO OF THE SEA. 227 

Not long ago there lived in Gloucester, Mass., a captain of a fishing smack, who 
was the brave hero in the following story : 

An ocean liner crossing the Banks in seas that swept the decks sighted a fishing; 
vessel with the flag flying union down — everywhere the recognized signal of distress. 
The captain looked at the vessel through his telescope, and saw no signs of life. It was 
freezing cold, and the waves rolled in gray mountains which threatened to crack a 
boat into splinters before she was fairly lowered. The captain thought a while, and 
looked out on the sea and figured his chances of getting to the distressed fisherman. 

He called his crew, rang the engineer's bell, and made ready to lower a boat. The 
crew listened to what he said about the danger, but declared themselves ready to try it. 
Then the captain looked again through his telescope. He rubbed his eyes in astonish- 
ment. The flag on the fisherman, which, a little before, had been flying union down, 
was now flying from the masthead, union up. 

Here was a strange thing. There was still no signs of life on board the distant 
vessel. The captain thought hard, and spoke again to the crew. They were still for 
going. 

So they put off in a boat, the first officer, and the second mate and men at the 
oars. The liner meanwhile had gone off her course nearer the smack. 

When the boat drew near the strange fishing schooner, the chances of boarding 
her seemed slight. The sea pitched the ship's boat high on a shaking peak of water,' 
then slammed her heavily into a chasm between two tottering walls. 

In justice to his men the officer in charge of the boat proposed that they put back. 
On the deep hulk that lurched a hundred yards from them was nothing to indicate a 
living man was there to be saved or left to his fate. But the crew and the mate urged 
that they should try to make fast and swing on board. If that flag had been changed, 
a live man's hand had changed it. 

So they pulled nearer, and keeping free of the dark hull that tossed and rolled and 
threatened to smash them, they flung a rope over the rail, and one by one clambered 0:1 
board. 

They found the captain and the crew lashed to the masts, frozen unconscious, took 
them off, and got them safely back to the steamer. Some of the men were dead, but 
the captain and several of the crew came to life. 

When the captain of the fisherman was able to speak, they asked him about the 
flag which had been first upside down, then righted. This was his simple explanation : 

He had reversed the flag to summon help. Then when he felt himself going and 
saw how mad was the sea, he thought that if any came to save him, they would run 
too great a risk ; so with the last ounce of strength he had righted the flag again to pre- 
vent good seamen from losing their lives in a vain effort to save his. 

A SONG IN THE NIGHT. 228 

The following exquisite lines were composed by the late Miss Sophia Kenyon, 
a devout member of Central Presbyterian church, of Joliet, 111., who for ten years 
before her death was confined to her room a helpless invalid. At times she suffered 
the keenest torture from her disease, and it was after a night of peculiarly severe 
pain that she wrote this wonderful hymn of faith. Interpreted by the heat of the 
furnace out of which they came, the verses must commend themselves to the reader 
as a singularly serene and beautiful triumph of Christian trust : 



I lay in my still darkened chamber, 

And close to my pillow sat Pain; 

The gloom of great darkness enframed her, 

Her heavy hand pressed on my brain. 

I shrank from that firm grasp so cruel, 

And in bitterness prayed for release, 

But that presence so dread pressed still closer, 

And my troubled heart found not His peace. 

Then waves black as midnight engulfed me; 
I sank in the depths of despair, 
When arms, strong and tender, upheld me, 
And I knew that the Father was there; 
That arms everlasting were 'neath me, 
My refuge, the Lord, the Most High, 
My strength, the Lord God, the great Healer 
Who hears every sufferer's cry. 

Pain still keeps her vigil beside me, 
But fear of her presence has fled ; 
That face that once seemed to deride me, 
Now bears not those features so dread ; 
For a pierced hand the curtain has lifted 
That o'er her so darkly had lain ; 
In the light of his love she's transfigured, 
And I know her — the Angel of Pain. 

A message she brings from the Saviour 

Who suffered that I might be free, 

Of strength that's made perfect in weakness, 

And grace all-sufficient for me; 

Of rest in his arms for the weary, 

Of love passing knowledge of men, 

Sweet peace, though life's path may be dreary, 

Blessed hope of his coming again. 

WALKING BY FAITH. 229 

Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis opens a sermon on "The Pathos of God's Love" with 
this illustration: 

Helen Kellar, blind, deaf, and dumb, is now publishing her biography. Thanks 
to her wise teacher, the girl has at last escaped from her dungeon. For many years 
her spirit was buried alive, entombed, not in stone, but in flesh. The body was a 
living sepulchre, with opaque walls that shut her spirit in. During those awful 
years she ate, she slept, she wakened — no more. From time to time she made signals, 
but no answer came from, without. From time to time she thought she detected 
signals coming in to her, but she knew not how to interpret them. 

At last, in the Providence of God, little Helen Kellar was placed in the charge 
of a teacher unique for skill. When the child was hungry he gave her the orange. 
Then putting his fingers on her throat, and putting her fingers on his throat, he 
spelled out the word. When the child was thirsty he gave her drink and then with 
the. fingers of the one on the throat of the other he spelled out the word water. 
When the child fell, bruising herself, with his fingers he sent this dispatch. 

"I Love You ," - 



and quickly with her ringers on his throat, the child spelled back her answer, "And 
I love you." 

Then later, Helen Kellar passed into the charge of a lady, to whose wisdom 
and instruction the whole world owes a debt. One day she told Helen Kellar 
through her fingers that there was a nerve in the ear for hearing, but that something 
had deadened her nerve in infancy. That, although all seemed silent to her, yet 
there were soldiers marching through the streets, keeping step to the sound of 
martial music. 

Because your optic nerve is dead, you must not be sceptical about the great 
realm of sight and color; and because your auditory nerve is paralyzed, you must not 
say there is no realm of sound. And the child answered, "I understand, and I believe." 
One day the friend brought Phillips Brooks, the great preacher, to her. And 
through her teacher, Phillips Brooks told Helen Kellar that 

God was Very Near to Her, 

her Father Unseen, who loved her, and would never let go of her hand, either in 
life or in death. And the child answered: "I have often felt Him. He comes like 
warmth, but I did not know before what to call Him." And from that day the 
girl went swiftly from one realm of knowledge to another realm. She passed from 
kingdom to kingdom. Her tomb began to enlarge. Great windows were opened 
up. At last she walked forth, free; she understood the signals from without; she 
answered these signals from within. For a long time she knew only in part; she saw, 
as it were, through a glass darkly. But she believes now in the great realm where 
sweet sounds dwell, in the upper realm where wondrous sights called clouds and 
mountains and stars are. Now from the view-point of her experience, I will ask 
Helen Kellar to read the text : "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that 
love Him." 

A FIGHT FOR SELF-MASTERY. 230 

The story is told of a student addicted to drink that after he had controlled 
himself for six years, he was tempted at the table of a friend beyond the power of 
his resistance. He hurried to his room in despair as he felt the thralldom of the 
old appetite. He vowed in agony that he would not again be enslaved. He shut 
the door, and turned the key, and cast the key away, that he might not be able 
to go forth and yield to the desperate power which assailed him and sought to 
destroy him. And so he fought the raging demon within, and kneeled, his face 
to the very floor, and prayed and groaned all the night long. Early in the morning 
two companions came, and, breaking through the door, exclaimed, as they saw 
him, "What have you done?" For his nails had in his agony lacerated his face, 
and it was reddened with blood. But he stood before his friends a victor. His was 
a splendid example of self-mastery, of restraint, of self-control, of self-government. 
It was a terrific battle, but he conquered, and lived the conqueror. He that is slow 
to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his own spirit than he that 
taketh a city. 

THE FOLLY OF DISCONTENT. 231 

There is a fairy tale which tells how a swarm of bees had made their hive in 
the hollow trunk of a tree : 

The oldest of the bees was never contented, because it always wanted to be a boy. 

It used to say, "Oh, dear! the fairies are always supposed to be kind. Now, if 
they are, why don't they come to me and change me to a boy? I am really tired of 
always working, and a boy does nothing but play." 

One day a fairy did come, and, as he knew that the bee was never contented, 



it asked him what he would like to be. "I would like to be a boy," he said, "because 
they have such good times." When he said that he was a boy. 

He was getting ready for school, but he did not know his lessons. "Oh," said 
he, "I wish I was a bee again; then I would not have to be bothered with lessons." 
When he came from school he found the same fairy which had changed him into 
a boy. 

"Oh, dear!" said he, "I wish you would change me into a bee again, because a 
boy has to be bothered with lessons." And he was changed into a bee again. 

Since that time he has always been a bee, and never complained about it. 

HEROIC STUFF IN HUMAN NATURE. 232 

Here is a story which comes to us from among the Northern Indians : 
A young Indian hunter of Moose Factory set out with his wife and two children 
for the winter hunting grounds in the forest south of James Bay. When chopping, 
the hunter injured his leg. The wound proved stubborn. Wrapping her husband 
in robes on the long toboggan sleigh, the squaw placed the younger child beside 
him, and with the other began tramping through the forest, drawing the sleigh behind. 
The drifts were not deep enough for swift snow-shoeing over the underbrush, and 
their progress was not half so speedy as the hunger that pursues northern hunters 
like the Fenris Wolf of Norse myth. The woman sank exhausted on the snow, 
and the older boy, nerved with fear, pushed on to Moose Factory for help. Guided 
by the boy back through the forests, the fort people found the hunter dead in the 
sleigh, the mother crouched forward unconscious from cold, stripped of her clothing, 
which was wrapped round the child she had taken in her arms to warm with her. 
own body. The child was alive and well. The fur traders nursed the woman back 
to life, though she looked more like a withered creature of eighty than a woman 
barely in her twenties. She explained with a simple unconsciousness of heroism that 
the ground had been too hard for her to bury her husband, and she was afraid to 
leave the body and go on to the fort lest the wolves should molest the dead. 

Surely people who are capable of heroism like that are worthy of the best 
religious instruction we can send them. It ought to be a joy to furnish well the 
missionary who goes mining after such souls. 

EASY TO DO MISCHIEF. 233 

A boy of fourteen or so stopped to buy a banana from a push-cart, and then, as 
he went leisurely along, he peeled it and threw the skin en the sidewalk. Quick 
as a flash a tall, broad-shouldered young man just behind him stepped forward, took 
hold of the boy's coat collar, and, turning him round, exclaimed : 

"Do you know what you are doing? You're putting danger in the way of fifty 
people who will pass this spot in the next five minutes. Kick that banana skin into 
the gutter, and never be guilty of such a thoughtless act again. Somebody might 
have broken a leg from your carelessness." 

The boy, with a surprised look, stolidly obeyed, and went on his way, when the 
restraining hand was removed, with a new idea, it is to be hoped, in his head, and a 
new resolve in his heart. He "didn't think," of course, when he did the deed, but 
he ought to have thought, and we ought to think every day whether we are putting 
stumbling-blocks or danger in our neighbor's way. 

And what an improvement might be made in our streets and the cars, omnibuses, 
and ferry-boats if every one tried to keep them clean, instead of adding to their dirt 
and untidiness.. 

A gentleman says that he started to tear up a letter and throw the pieces on 
the floor of the elevated cars one day, when the thought came to him: "What 
right have I to do this, and cause the expense and trouble of some one to pick 
up the pieces?" 



If we follow the law of Christ in serving one another, "in honor preferring one 
another," we shall be watchful not to trouble others. 

SOWING AND REAPING. 234 

An evangelist tells this story : 

"Twenty-two years ago I was preaching in Chicago with Mr. Moody in a large 
wooden tabernacle. Thousands of people crowded the building nightly. One evening 
a man came into the building and got beautifully saved. He went away as happy as 
could be. He came back the next night and I saw him in the audience and he looked 
the most pitiable of all the persons in that great building. At the conclusion of the 
service I went down the aisle and shaking his hand said: 'My dear friend, you are 
troubled because you are doubting your salvation. He said : 'Mr. Inglis, you are mis- 
taken. I know I am saved, but I have a great burden on my heart. Let me tell you my 
story : Some months ago I forged a note for $75,000 and I am at this moment a fugi- 
tive from the law. Now what would you advise me to do?' 'Go back and give your- 
self up. I answered at once. T will/ he said. He then shook hands with us all and 
left the building. He took the first train for his native city and went straight to his 
house, threw his arms about his wife and told her of his conversion and his purpose. 
He then went upstairs and kissed his sleeping children. He next walked over to a 
police station and gave himself up. He was convicted without delay and sentenced to 
twenty-five years imprisonment in the penitentiary. The last I heard of him, sixteen 
years had rolled away and he was still confined in the prison. My friends, becoming a 
Christian did not save that man from the penalty of the law and the consequences of 
his sin. And I want to tell you, my hearers, and it may shock some, that though God 
forgives us fully when we repent, the sinner cannot escape the results of previous evil- 
doing. A drunkard, or any other terrible sinner, bears about through life a ruined 
body. Oh, my hearers, let us learn to hate sin and to realize its consequences." 

"I MUST NOT COMPLAIN." 235 

Six years before his death, Sir Walter Scott, the great English novelist, through 
the failure of his publishing house, was thrown into a debt of $600,000. He could have 
compromised with his creditors, who would gladly have accepted his personal share of 
the debt, but his sense of honor would not permit this. "Every pound must be paid !" 
he declared. Thus, at an age when many would have said, "I must have rest," he 
plunged anew into work, and, pen in hand, toiled on through the six years, from 
twelve to sixteen hours a day, giving to the world meanwhile some of his best books. 
At last the day came when the final pound was paid, and Sir Walter was a free man, 
with unstained honor. But his health was ruined; he could not longer walk; his hand 
had become enfeebled so that he could not easily grasp his pen. In his inability to do 
so, toward his last day, he sank back in his chair in tears, and recovering himself, said 
to his daughter, "Put the pen in my hand again !" They did so, but the hand refused 
to hold it. The life-work of the great hero was done ! But he exclaimed, "I must 
not complain!" And complain he did not. His ambition was realized, and he had 
given to the world a legacy that should gladden it for ever. 

A DEBT WE CANNOT PAY. 236 

The Red Cross Society gave a meal to a North Dakota Regiment of Veterans 
coming back from Manila, during the Philippine Insurrection, on its arrival in San 
Francisco. Some of the first ladies of the city served the tables. 

"Did you get enough to eat?" asked a beautiful society girl, beaming with cor- 
diality upon a private soldier. 

"I should say so," he answered, rising. "That's the finest meal I've had since we 
started." 

Then, as he looked at the pretty girl, he fumbled in his pocket and held out a 
coin towards her. 



"What is that for?" she asked, a bewitching smile dimpling her lovely face. 

"Why, to pay for this spread," replied the soldier in an embarrassed way. 

"O, we don't charge for this," she assured him. "This luncheon is given by the 
Red Cross." 

"Ah ," he stammered, and his embarrassment deepened. "We — el, you just 

take this anyhow, and buy some gum or something," and he pushed ten cents into 
her unwilling hand. 

Her father is a millionaire, and this soldier's pay is fifteen dollars a month. She 
hesitated over the situation a second. She would hurt the young fellow's feelings if 
she refused his money. So she accepted it, with a graceful nod, quickly saying : — 

"But you must let me give you some flowers." Then, as she pinned a boutonniere 
to his lapel, she dropped a five-dollar gold piece in his pocket, and turned to hide her 
tears at the thought of her unpaid debt to these boys in blue. 

If that is a natural and proper attitude toward the soldier who fights for us as well 
as himself, what ought our love and gratitude to be toward Him who came from 
Heaven to die for us? 

"GOD IS HERE." 237 

A minister was talking with a young man who was attending a school where the 
moral influences were not good. He told him about a certain Christian college, and 
finally induced him to go there. Later there was a great revival in this college, and 
the young man was converted. Having occasion to attend a convention in the town, 
he met the young student. Warmly greeting him, the minister asked: 

"Well, how are you getting along in your religious experience?" 

Tears came into the young man's eyes (for he had been deeply moved in one of the 
recent revival meetings, and, in a choking voice, he replied : 

"God is here." 

"God is here !" What better thing could be said about a Christian college ? Com- 
fortable buildings, cultured faculty, modern apparatus, — all that murt be had, but in 
addition, let students feel: "God is here." 

FIDELITY TO DUTY. 238 

The heroism of the war correspondent is often commented upon; but the occasional 
brave doings of a reporter for a city paper are not so widely known. Here is a story 
from Paris, which certainly cannot be overmatched for sublime loyalty to duty: 

One day a riot was apprehended, and a reporter, Donzelot, was sent to the Pan- 
theon to report the events in that quarter. Already the stones were flying, and the law- 
less mob had begun to tear up the streets and barricade them. 

One of Donzelot's friends saw him as he was running by, and said to him : 

"What are you doing here? Run and save yourself!" 

Donzelot made no reply, and again his friend urged him to leave so dangerous a 
spot. 

"I am not going to move," he said; "but as you are going, kindly take this copy 
along with you to the paper; you will save me time." 

An hour passed, and the disorder was at its height. The mob had already begun 
to clash .seriously with the authorities. Suddenly the National Guard fired a volley, 
and Donzelot fell, his breast pierced by a bullet. A surgeon rushed up to him. 

"Are you hurt?" he asked. 

"Yes," replied Donzelot, "seriously, I think, I cannot use my pencil." 

"Never mind your pencil," returned the surgeon, sharply ; "the question is to save 
your life." 

"Don't be in a hurry," returned Donzelot, quietly. "To each man his own duty. 
Mine is to get the story, and you must help me. Here, write at the foot of this post- 
script : "3:20 p. m. — At the fire of the troops three men fell wounded and one was 
killed." 



Why, which one was killed?" asked the doctor. 

"I am," replied the reporter, and he fell back dead. 

WHENCE AND WHITHER? 23$ 

The police at a station in Williamsburg, New York, had to deal recently with a 
singular case. 

A man with a big sand cart and a team of horses came to the station-house in a 
dazed condition. He said he was from Poland, but he had been several years in this 
country. He had gone to work for a contractor, whose name he could not remember. 
He had been sent to a sand-pit, where the wagon was filled with sand. Thence he 
drove to another part of the city, where some houses were being built, and there he 
had dumped the sand. He was driving back to the sand-pit for another load when he 
seemed to lose all knowledge of his route and of what he had to do. He had driven 
until dark in the hope that he would see some familiar landmark, or that his memory 
would return. Some one in whom he confided had advised him to apply to the police 
and had shown him the way to the station. He had not been drinking, but he could 
not remember where he was going, nor where he came -from, nor where he lived. The 
police kept him at the station for the remainder of the night, feeling sure that in- 
quiries would be made for him in the morning. His condition is extraordinary and 
calls for medical attention. It is not often that we hear of such a case; but it is not at 
all uncommon to find people who in the far more important matter of the soul are 
similarly ignorant as to their origin and destination, but think only of present indul- 
gence. 

Let us eat and drink for to-morrow we shall die (Isaiah 22:13). 

PUTTING YOURSELF IN THE OTHER'S PLACE. 240 

If each were able to put himself in the other's place what envy, jealousy and com- 
plaining would be avoided. The truth is that nearly all our misunderstandings and 
harsh judgments are caused by our failure to act on this truly Christian programme. 
St. Paul exhorts us to think not of our own things alone but also of the things of 
others Were this injunction generally obeyed it would soon be discovered that the 
place we are in is probably as good as, and possibly better than, the one belonging to 
our neighbor, and which we would claim, if we could. A French officer, riding near 
his troops, heard a soldier say : "It is very easy for the general to order us forward 
while he rides and we walk." The officer dismounted and compelled the soldier to get 
on the horse. Passing through a ravine a bullet from a sharpshooter struck the rider 
and he fell dead. Then the officer, turning to the troops, said: "How much safer is 
it to walk than to ride?" 

"KEEP THY HEART." 241 

Dr. Wayland Hoyt tells the story of a godless sea-captain who sailed into a mission 
station on the Pacific, and the missionary sought speech with him on religious subjects. 
The captain answered : "I came away from Nantucket after whales. I have sailed 
round Cape Horn for whales. I am now up in the North Pacific Ocean after whales. 
I fear your labor would be entirely lost upon me, and I ought to be honest with you. 
I care for nothing by day but whales, and I dream of nothing by night but whales. If 
you should open my heart, I think you would find the shape of a small sperm-whale 
there." That sea-captain's life was as his heart was. 

GOD'S IMAGE DEFACED. 242 

A suit has been brought in Paris by the famous artist, M. Gerome, against a picture- 
dealer, for damages. The artist finds in the possession of the dealer a picture painted 
by himself, which he says has been altered since it left his hands. He contends that 
the picture has been spoiled, and that persons seeing it in its present condition, and 
hearing that he painted it, would form a low opinion of his genius. The picture repre- 



sented a scene under the light of the setting sun, with the rising moon shedding a soft 
gleam over it. The moon has been painted out and the light is that of mid-day. 

In Paris art circles the dispute is being watched with intense interest, because it is 
held there that the painter alone has the right to sanction a change in his work. It 
seems probable that the artist will win his case, and so there will be a new limitation to 
the rights of property. 

It would be well if men realized that there are similar limitations to their rights in 
themselves. In how many men is the image of God defaced and His purpose in creat- 
ing them thwarted ! 

MEASURING DAY. 243 

A young girl mingled in her dreams a sermon on "growing unto the stature of a 
perfect man" with the story of King Frederick of Prussia, each of whose famous 
guardsmen must come up to a certain stature. In her dream she came to measuring 
day, when every person's growth in grace must be measured. An angel stood with a 
tall golden rod fastened in the ground by his side. 

"Over it on a golden scroll were the words, 'The Measure of the Stature of the 
Perfect Man.' The angel held in his hand a large book in which he wrote the meas- 
urements, as the people came up on the calling of their names. The instant each one 
touched the golden measure a most wonderful thing happened. No one could escape 
the terrible accuracy of that strange rod. Each one shrank or increased to his true 
dimensions — his spiritual dimensions, as I soon learned — for it was an index of the 
soul's growth which was shown in this mysterious and miraculous way, so that even we 
could see with our eyes what otherwise the angel alone could have perceived." 

GOING INSIDE OR PASSING BY, WHICH? 244 

Some years ago, says a traveler, I made a tour through England for the purpose of 
visiting cathedrals and churches. Of all the noble buildings with splendid architecture, 
wonderful furnishings and rich historic associations, the most distinct and abiding im- 
pression was made by the smallest and most insignificant. Its entrance door opened 
directly from the pavement of a busy street. On the wall behind the chancel was the 
figure of Christ on the cross, and above it the sentence in red letters : "Is it nothing 
to you, all ye that pass by?" 

The impression of that hour has never faded from my mind. The sound of the 
footfalls outside the open door seemed like the march of the army of mankind passing 
thoughtlessly by the greatest revelation ever made, constantly being made, of the fath- 
omless love of God for men in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 

There is the secret of the attractiveness of the church. It is through individual 
experience of the meaning of that Figure on the cross that men come to learn the 
meaning of brotherhood and to get "inside" the church. 

THE NEED OF GUNPOWDER. 245 

It is said of the Rev. Archibald Brown that, when staying at a certain popular 
watering-place, he made the acquaintance of a minister who, though a very able man, 
had unfortunately a slow and hesitating delivery, which certainly did not add to the 
numbers of his congregation or the power of his preaching. 

Mr. Brown pointed out his defect to him in a characteristic way. 

Well, Mr. Brown," said the minister in question, one day, "I am, you see, just off 
to speak at such and such a meeting." 

"Will you let me give you a little advice ?" said the famous preacher. 

"You* know how greatly I should value it." 
. "Well," said Mr. Brown, "before you start ask your wife to sew some gunpowder 
into your coat-tails, and then get one of your deacons to follow you round the plat- 
form with a lighted match." 



The minister saw, of course, the meaning of this jocular advice, and, it is to be 
hoped, profited by it. 

WELCOME TO HEAVEN. 246 

Dr. Pierre, returning to France from India after a long journey, said that his men 
when they came in sight of their native land were unfitted for duty. Some of them 
wistfully gazed upon the land they loved. Some of them shouted, some prayed, some 
fainted, and it is said that when they came near enough to recognize their friends on 
shore that every man left his post of duty, and it was necessary for help to come off the 
land before the vessel could be anchored in the harbor. Oh! the joy of thus entering 
heaven. Welcome from the gates, welcome from our friends long gone, welcome 
from every angel in the skies. The joy, the joy of one day sweeping through the 
gates ! 

GOD OUR MOTHER. 247 

A little girl once followed the workmen from her father's grounds when they 
went home to their dinner, because she was very fond of a kind old man who was one 
of them. When he looked from his door he saw her sitting on a log waiting for him, 
and invited her to go into the cottage. She looked in, saw the strange faces around 
the table and hesitated. When he urged her, she raised her sweet face and inquired : 

"Is there any mother here?" 

"Yes, my dear, there's a mother here," he answered. 

"Oh, then I'll go in ; for I'm not afraid if there's a mother there !" 

Her child's experience had told her she could place confidence in a mother's sym- 
pathy. A home may be small and mean, but if it is the shrine of a mother's love it is 
a happier place than a palace would be without this blessed presence. 

What infinite comfort there should be for us in the promise that "Like as a mother 
comforteth her child," God is willing to comfort and bless us. 

OUR INFLUENCE OVER OTHERS. 248 

Dr. Polemus H. Swift tells of a preacher who came into the pleasant but guileful 
city of New York on his vacation. "Here," said the preacher man, "I am far from 
home, and they who go about the streets and into places of public amusement will know 
me not. Hence I will betake myself to the theatre and enjoy myself in peace." A few 
days later the preacher was accosted on the train by a young man who said to him, 
"Are you not a minister of the Gospel?" The preacher acknowledged that he was. 

"Did you not preach in my home town, the village of , last Sunday night?" the 

young man asked. The preacher answered that he had. "Ah !" said the young man, 
"and I saw you last Wednesday night in the fifth seat from me at the theatre. I never 
want to hear you preach again, for I have no confidence in you, even though I am not 
a professing Christian." 

The message of this illustration is as important and as valuable to the layman 
as to the teacher. 

RESPECT YOUR OWN MISSION. 249 

During one of the visits to St. Petersburg made by the great pianist, Liszt, the Czar 
Nicholas invited him to a soiree at the Winter Palace, and in the course of the even- 
ing personally invited him to play. The author of "Famous Pianists" describes what 
happened. 

Liszt sat down to the piano and commenced one of his own Hungarian rhapsodies. 
The Czar, as soon as the music was well started, entered into an animated conversation 
with one of his generals, talking in anything but a subdued voice. Liszt had always 
exacted exclusive attention from his audiences, no matter of what exalted social ele- 
ments they might be composed, and, noticing the conversation, he played on for a 
minute or so, when he suddenly came to a full stop and rose from his seat at the in- 
strument. 



Although he had paid no heed to Liszt's performance, the Czar missed the sound 
of the piano, and sent one of his chamberlains to ask the artist why he had ceased 
playing, — was he indisposed, or was not the piano properly tuned? 

Liszt's steely gray eyes flashed with righteous indignation as he replied, "The Czar 
well knows that whilst he is speaking every other voice — even that of music — is bound 
to be mute!" He then turned kis back on the official and left the room. 

The Czar took the reproof in good part, and sent Liszt a valuable present the next 
day. Moreover, the incident seems to have made a lasting impression, for whenever 
Liszt's name was mentioned, the Czar spoke of him with cordial admiration as a musi- 
cian who not only respected himself, but had the courage to insist upon respect being 
paid to his art. 

A JAPANESE DEFINITION OF PRAYER. 250 

A native Japanese, in Bethany Church, Philadelphia, gives this unique definition of 
prayer and its answer: "They remind me of two buckets in an old fashioned well; 
while one was going up, the other was coming down." 

WHY HE FAILED. 251 

"Why did you not give that boy a position?" someone asked of a merchant who 
had refused a lad's application. "Because he borrowed ten cents from my boy once, at 
school, and never returned it," was the answer. "A little thing like that shows what 
a boy is more than a dozen recommendations." Was the judgment harsh, or wasn't 
it fair, after all? 

EIGHT HOURS PRAYER A DAY. 252 

An English preacher recently told this story of Luther and his habits of prayer: 
The great Apostle of the Reformation, moving in stirring times, riding upon the 
storm, writes to one who knew him well, "I am so busy that I cannot get on without 
eight hours a day spent in prayer to my Master." Are we to understand that Martin 
Luther could take eight hours apart from his work? because, if so, the conditions of 
his busy life were very dissimilar from the conditions of yours. Nothing of the kind. 

Work shall be prayer if all be wrought 

As Thou wouldst have it done, 
And prayer by Thee inspired and taught 

Itself with work be one. 

But there was this difference between Luther and some of you : Before his thoughts 
became purposes, before his purposes became deeds, they were referred to the Master 
of all; his communion with Him was sweet; he spake with Him, face to face, as a man 
speaketh with his friend; and, therefore, it was that it might be said of him as it was 
said of John Knox by the Regent Morton, "He never feared the face of man, so famil- 
iar was he with the face of God." 

SHE WAS SO PLEASANT. 253 

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the poet, once related a little incident as occurring in 
his own life, which had no little effect on him: 

"Many years .ago," he says, "in walking among the graves at Mount Auburn, I 
came upon a plain white marble slab which bore an epitaph of only four words, but to 
my mind they meant more than any of the labored descriptions on other monuments: 
'She was so pleasant.' That one note revealed the music of a life of which I knew 
nothing more." 

FRUIT IN OLD AGE. 254 

Here is a beautiful story illustrating the truth of the Psalmist's promise concern- 
ing righteous old age that it shall bear fruit and flourish till the last. 

Mr. Jennings had passed his three score and ten, and had come to a time of en- 






forced inactivity. A long illness kept him for months in bed, and when he recovered 
he had dropped out of the procession; every one recognized his breakdown as the un- 
mistakable sign that his days of work were over. Mr. Jennings was not altogether 
happy He almost resented the fact that the church and the community could get on 
so well without him; and it seemed hard that his manly vigor, carried on finely into 
old age, should waste in unwilling idleness, with nothing to look forward to but final 
helplessness and death. 

"I stay at home and pray," he said, "but I can do nothing to answer my own 
prayers. I can't get out to the services, and I have little chance to influence anyone 
for good. The world has gone on while I have been resting by the way, and I can't 
catch up." 

Mrs. Jennings comforted him, and the aged pair sat down together, making the 
most of each other's companionship, and daily praying for the Lord's work, which was 
going on without them. 

One morning the two old saints finished their breakfast, read their chapter in the 
Bible, and kneeled down, according to their custom, to thank God for their blessings, 
to ask His guidance and care for the grown-up and scattered family, and His benedic- 
tion on the work which others were doing, and in which they no longer had a share. 

While they were on their knees, a ladder rose against the open window, and a man 
began to ascend. The old couple were a little deaf, and prayed on. The carpenter,, 
who had come to repair the roof of the bay window, ascended two rounds and 
stopped. He stood for a minute, at least, undecided whether to go up or down or to 
stay where he was ; then he descended quietly and stole away. 

A little way from the house the carpenter sat down in the shade and waited. The 
prayer was not a short one, and its tones still came to him. He recalled the words 
which he had heard on the ladder, and his eyes filled with tears ; he brushed them 
away, but they came again ; he thought of another grey-haired old couple, now dead,, 
who never failed, while they lived, to pray to God for an absent son. 

He remounted the ladder at length, but the accents of that prayer rose and fell 
in his ears with the tapping of his hammer; and when Mr. Jennings came out and 
leaned on his stick and inquired about the repairs which the roof needed, the carpenter 
felt as if he had received a benediction. 

All this was eight months ago. A few days ago Mr. Jennings's door-bell rang, and 
a man entered and said: "I am the carpenter who repaired your roof last spring. I 
had truly Christian parents, but I entered the army and led a sad life. I had not been 
to church nor heard a prayer for years. I heard your prayer when I put up the lad- 
der. For eight months, by the help of God, I have lived a new life." 

Then the old couple knelt down again, and thanked God for an unexpected answer 
to their prayer. 

DEAN FARRAR'S MOTHER. 255 

The influence of prayer on the part of a Christian mother was strikingly exempli- 
fied in the life of Dean Farrar. It began when he was a boy at home. The Dean tells 
us that his mother's habit was every morning, immediately after breakfst, to withdraw 
for an hour to her own room, and to spend the hour in reading the Bible and other 
devotional books, and in meditation and prayer. 

From that hour, as from a pure fountain, she drew the strength and sweetness 
which enabled her to fulfil all her duties and to remain unruffled by the worries and 
pettishness which are often the intolerable trials of narrow neighbors. He says he 
never saw her temper disturbed, nor heard her speak one word of anger or calumny or 
idle gossip, nor saw in her any sign or sentiment unbecoming to a Christian soul. Her 
life was very strong, pure, rich, and full of blessing and healing. And he says it wa& 
all due to the daily morning hour spent with God in the place of prayer. 



REPENTING HIS FOLLY. 256 

A citizen of St. Louis, Missouri, had a thrilling experience. He had become de- 
spondent, and determined to commit suicide. Early in the morning, while it was yet 
dark, he jumped into the river. The shock of the icy water worked a quick change 
in his intentions, and he struggled desperately to get back to the shore. A large ice- 
floe passed near him, and he struggled to get upon it. It carried him slowly down the 
river, striking other floes of ice on its way. The man, fearing that he would be 
thrown off if he stood up, flung himself prone on the ice, trying vigorously to retain 
his hold upon it. He could not see the shore, and had lost the points of the compass, 
and was unable to tell whether he was floating out or toward the shore. The slush 
ice, and many other big cakes surrounded him. As he grew more numb with the cold, 
he began to lose hope of reaching the shore. He simply clung to his icecake, now and 
then crying out feebly for help. For three hours he was on the ice. When broad 
daylight came, he saw that by extremely careful work he could make his way to the 
solid ice, his cake having become lodged against other chunks in such a manner that 
there was a precarious bridge. He slowly crawled over the grinding ice-floe, and 
reached the solid ice near the shore. Upon land again, he sank to the ground ex- 
hausted, and there he was discovered by a policeman, who took him to a place of 
shelter. How strange that he made such great effort to save the life that only a short 
time before he was so ready to fling away ! How many there must be, who are throw- 
ing away their souls, who will in the end similarly deplore their folly and long for the 
salvation which now they despise. 

Ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was 
rejected; for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with 
tears (Heb. 12:17). 

GIVE YOUR FLOWERS NOW. 257 

"If I should die, John, I suppose you would spend a good deal of money for 
flowers." 

"Why, yes, Anna; but whatever put that into your head?" 

"Oh, nothing, only I thought that ten-dollar wreaths and fifty-dollar anchors 
wouldn't make any difference to me when I'm dead, and just a little flower now and 
then while I'm living would mean so much to me." 

"Just a little flower, now and then, while I'm living." The reply of the young wife 
is eloquent of the heart-hunger of thousands. 

Why do we withhold the appreciative word, the loving look, the fervent handclasp 
until the pulses are stilled, the eyes closed, the ears unheeding? Why wait until 
flowers can no longer give pleasure to shower them upon our near and dear ones? 

We can make the present beautiful if we will; we can gild it with loving, tender 
acts and gracious words. Now is the time to gladden the hearts of those about us. 
Now is the time to give the "little flower." To-morrow it may be all too late! 

THERE MAY BE NO "NEXT TIME." 258 

"I think she regretted it afterwards," said the young girl thoughtfully. "She said 
it should be different next time, but then," with a little sigh, "so many things haven't 
any next time." 

What a truth that is which we forget in our flimsy little contritions and peni- 
tences ! We regret, we will act differently another time, we soothingly whisper to 
complaining conscience, when there is no next time. The day our selfish mood 
spoiled for ourselves and others has no exact counterpart; it will not come again. 
The. place where our help was needed has slipped by; the eyes that turned to us in vain 
appeal have looked away again. The hurt we gave has healed, but no next time can 
«ver take the scar away. 

It is a blessed gospel which bids us turn from "yesterday's sorrow and yesterday's 



sinning." and make the most and best of to-day; it is all there is left for us to do. But 
our to-day will not bring us what yesterday offered, nor will to-morrow repeat to-day. 
Let us be very careful of the many things which have no "next time." 

THE VALUE OF A SOUL. 259 

Rev. F. B. Meyers has this strong paragraph, with its two striking illustrations con- 
cerning the wisdom of winning souls as an investment of energy. 

It is a wise thing to win a soul, because of the rapidity with which soul-saving 
accumulates. Sow a seed in the ground, and it will bear thirty; each of those will 
bear thirty ; and each of those, thirty ; so that in three generations you can almost count 
a million. It is impossible to estimate the result of the winning of one soul. The 
immediate outcome may be but a struggling blade or ear, but ultimately from the full 
corn in the ear, when sown again in other souls, will come harvests that shall shake like 
Lebanon. 

There was a year in the little church at Blantyre when but one convert was wel- 
comed to the Lord's table, but that lad was David Livingstone, and as he was sown in 
the soil of his much loved Africa, he has become the seed germ of that mighty ingath- 
ering of souls which is being garnered into the heavenly store-house. 

A young Sunday-school teacher, a poor seamstress, one Sunday gave to a rough 
street arab a shilling to induce him to go to a Sunday-school. That boy, Amos Sutton, 
was converted, went to work as a missionary among the Telugus, and after twenty-five 
years ten thousand converts were won in a single year. 

There is no work so enormously productive of good results as the turning of a 
sinner from the error of his ways and winning one soul for God. 

CHURCH FELLOWSHIP. 260 

Dr. R. S. McArthur tells this story, which illustrates the folly of exclusiveness 
which is often apparent in churches among people who really have a desire to be social : 
Two gentlemen with their families occupied neighboring pews. One Sunday morn- 
ing one of them said to the pastor: "How I wish that the white-haired gentleman, 
who sits behind me, would speak to me, as I am a stranger in the congregation." The 
pastor replied : "Only last Sunday that gentleman remarked, 'How I wished the 
brother in the pew in front of me would speak to me.' " The fact is that the one who 
first expressed the desire for acquaintance and who supposed he was especially a 
stranger, had been six months longer in the congregation than the other. They were 
soon introduced and they then found that they were both from the same Southern city 
and that both knew scores of common friends. They often laughed afterward at their 
own stupidity or timidity, or both. In all our churches there are men equally stupid 
or timid, or both. How foolish it is to "stand on ceremony" in this way! In God's 
house and in relation to God's people, why can we not have sanctified common sense? 
Let us be ready to entertain strangers and often, indeed, we shall entertain angels 
unawares. 

THE GOADS OF DISAPPOINTMENT AND TROUBLE. 261 

A recent speaker well says that : 

"Seldom is perfection of any kind attained, or even sought, without the goads of 
disappointment and trouble. When Jenny Lind, the most admired of the famous 
vocalists of her time, at the age of twenty-one went to Paris to train her voice under a 
great teacher, her first trial was an utter failure. 'You have no voice left,' was the 
master's judgment. Never before and never after did she know such mental suffering. 
But she would not be discouraged. She studied hard for many weeks, urged on by 
the keenness of her disappointment, and at another trial she was accepted as a pupil 
and began her brilliant career. To this bitter discipline at the beginning she attributed 
her final success. And this which is true of artistic genius is just as true of personal 
and national character. If our life is easy and happy, we are apt to be selfish and 



content; but in suffering and disappointment and danger we learn our imperfections, 
new ideals dawn before us, great aspirations stir within us. Many a selfish life has 
been ennobled by grief and become a fountain of benefactions to others. Seldom has 
there lived any hero or saint who would not confess that he owed whatever greatness 
he had attained to experiences of struggle and sorrow. Even of Jesus it was said that 
he was 'made perfect through suffering/ Both individuals and nations have been 
called to bear suffering and sorrow, so that they might awake to higher aims, until at 
last they have won the fulfilment of their noblest aspirations in being permitted to do 
something for the benefit of their fellow-men, and thus have entered into their true 
glory." 

THE GAMBLER'S KINDERGARTEN. 262 

A converted gambler and former saloon-keeper recently made a profound impres- 
sion in an Ohio town in an address at a Sunday afternoon service in the course of 
which he said: 

"I have been in the public-house business, with gambling room attached, for the 
last four years, and claim to know something about what I am going to tell you. I do 
not believe that the gambling den is nearly so dangerous nor does anything like the 
amount of harm as the social card-playing in the home. I give this as my reason: 
In the gambling room the windows are closed tight, the curtains are pulled down; 
everything is conducted secretly, for fear of detection, and none but gamblers, as a rule, 
enter there, while in the parlor all have access to the game, children are permitted to 
watch it, young people are invited to partake in it. It is made attractive and alluring 
by giving prizes and adding high social enjoyment. 

"Where does the gambler come from? He is not taught in the gambling dens. 
When he has played in the parlor, in the social game in the home, and has become pro- 
ficient enough to win prizes among his friends, the next step with him is to seek out 
the gambling room, for he has learned and now counts upon his efficiency to hold his 
own." 

LACK OF CHRISTIAN HOSPITALITY. 263 

A celebrated clergyman was to preach one Sunday in a village church, and a 
large and fashionable audience assembled. 

Sitting alone in a pew near the front was an old countryman, dressed in rusty 
black. Two fashionably-dressed ladies came in and paused at this pew with an evident 
air of ownership. The old man did not observe them, and one of the ladies touched 
him on the shoulder and said, haughtily: 

"Excuse me, but this is our pew !" 

The old man nervously arose, stood aside for them to enter, and then resumed his 
seat in the end of the pew. The ladies appeared ill at east and finally spoke to the 
usher, who at once said to the old gentleman: 

"Shall I find you another seat, sir?" 

"This is all right," was the audible whisper. "I can see and hear well here." 

"But this is a private pew," said the usher. 

"Oh !" returned the old man, and then to the lady next him he said, "Excuse me. 
I have been accustomed to free seats in the Lord's house," and rising, he followed the 
usher to the rear. 

At that moment the preacher entered, and after a silent prayer his gaze wandered 
over the congregation, and suddenly his eyes lighted up. Then he motioned and 
spoke to an usfrer, who went to the rear of the church and escorted the shabby old 
gentleman to a front seat. Then a whisper spread, "That's the minister's father." 

Fancy the feelings of those two fashionable women when they discovered that 
they had treated their minister's father so discourteously, and yet they ought to have 
had greater shame and sorrow that they had failed in hospitality to the brother o£ 
Jesus Christ. 



MAKING US WILLING TO BE SAVED. 264 

An English preacher has this illustration : 

A French professor, a man of a good deal of spiritual insight, was asked: "Pro- 
fessor, what is your thought about it ? Why do you suppose Jesus Christ anointed the 
eyes of that man with clay?" "Oh," said he, "I don't know, unless it made him a little 
more willing to go to wash." 

Well, may not that be a chief reason? There is much in it. You know our Lord 
often puts us into a position by His providence wherein, because of our new straits, or 
discomfort, or embarrassment, we become willing to take some other needful step ; and 
if it were not for that trial, or sorrow, or humiliation, we never would advance a step. 
Of these providences, often so dark, trying, and troublous, how often we say, "Oh, if 
God had not sent that upon me!" 

But that very event is the one condition indispensable, on which the Lord leads us 
to take some further step. 

THE MAGNETISM OF LOVE. 265 

One of the writers of the day tells of a plan which has lately been proposed and 
successfully employed for raising the cargoes of sunken vessels. 

A huge electromagnet, operated from the deck of a vessel is lowered to the sub- 
merged cargo; and if it be of a character subject _o the influence of magnetism, it is 
attracted and lifted by this power, and thus easily saved. 

There is a power from on high which came to seek and save that which was lost. 
Down in the murky depths of the waters of sin, this magnet of love draws to itself 
sinful souls and lifts them by its power to the bright sunlight and pure air above. Not 
by any virtue or power of their own — simply by the love that passeth understanding, 
and the saving power of the divine Redeemer, they are uplifted from the depths and 
made to stand among the rescued ones of the Lord. 

And not only are these saved, but through that clinging touch and that close com- 
panionship, the saved ones are filled with the same magnetism of love that will enable 
them to help in raising others with whom they come in contact; so long as they keep 
close themselves to the love that sought and found and raised them up. 

WON BY BOLDNESS. 266 

We are told in the Acts of the Apostles that when it was that the people saw the 
boldness of Peter and John that they were impressed with the genuineness of their 
Christianity. The same boldness has the same influence yet. It was in this way that 
the venerable Emil Frommel, for so many years Pastor of the Garrison Church, in 
Berlin, and a favorite Court preacher to the Emperor William I, exercised a singular 
fascination over men. He fired the soldiers' hearts in camp and on the battle-field and 
military audiences crowded the Garrison church. Neither hereditary nor military rank 
deterred him from faithful rebuke of their sins. Having learned that a set of officers 
had begun regular gambling at the house of one of their number, he made a call there 
late one night. The servant who waited at the door was at a loss what to do with the 
pastor. Brushing past the frightened man, Dr. Frommel strode toward the room from 
which there came the sounds of revelry. 

Throwing suddenly the door wide open, there he saw a table surrounded by a 
brilliant company of officers engaged with wine and their cards. Without other 
greeting, he stepped to the table and said : "Gentlemen, I have heard of the gambling 
here. I have not come to preach to you of its sin and the misery it brings. If your 
eyes do not behold the wrong and your hearts have not been softened by the ruin it has 
caused, my words will not avail." He laid his hand upon the pile of gold. "Here, I 
take this with me ; I will spend it for the poor ;" and he vanished as he came. But his 
brave faithfulness aroused admiration in this circle. They gave up gambling and 
sought his friendship. 

FORGOTTEN PROMISES. 267 

A well-to-do deacon was one day accosted by his pastor, who said : 



"Poor Mrs. Green has no fire. Can you not take her some wood?" 

"Well," answered the deacon, "I have the wood, but who is to pay me for it?" 

The pastor replied, "I will pay you for it, on condition that you read three verses 
of the forty-first Psalm before you go to bed to-night." 

The deacon consented, delivered the wood, and at night opened the Word of God, 
and read the passage : 

"Blessed is he that considereth the poor; the Lord will deliver him in time of 
trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive ; and he shall be blessed upon 
the earth; and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. The Lord will 
strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; thou wilt make all his bed in his sick- 
ness." 

A few days afterward the pastor met him again. 

"How much do I owe you for that wood?" 

"Oh," said the now enlightened man, "do not speak of payment; I did not know 
those promises were in the Bible. I would not take money for supplying the widow's 
wants" 

A YOUNG WOMAN'S TEMPERANCE LECTURE. 268 

A young man recently declared that the most effective temperance lecture he ever 
heard in his life was preached to him on a New Year's day by a young woman who 
had never spoken in public in her life. On being pressed for an explanation, he 
said: 

"I was visiting my cousin, John Levins, and we set out to pay a number of New 
Year's calls. It is not the custom now, as formerly, to set out wine before guests, but 
it is still done sometimes. Our second call was at a princely home where the lovely 
daughter greeted us, smiling and beautiful, a very queen among women. There was 
also an elegant assortment of choice wines which the father pressed upon the guests. 
'Did you come to see papa or me?' was always the question asked of each guest, and, 
so far as I know, there was but one answer, 'We came to see you.' 'My guests touch 
no wine,' she said. T have other refreshments provided for them.' The wine glasses 
stood untouched, the fair young girl flitted to and fro among her guests, ministering 
herself to their needs. The father gracefully acquiesced and finally had the glasses 
removed. 

" 'Did you ever witness anything so effectual as that ?' said Cousin John, as we 
started up the street together. 

" 'Never,' I answered. 'No temperance lecture ever touched me like that quiet 
speech. "My guests touch no wine." God helping me, it is the last time the glass shall 
ever touch my lips.' " 

EASIER TO BARK THAN TO WORK. 269 

A dog hitched to a lawn mower stopped pulling to bark at a passer-by. The boy 
who was guiding the mower said: "Don't mind the dog; he is just barking for ex- 
cuse to rest. It is easier to bark than to pull this machine." It is easier to be critical 
than correct; easier to bark than to work. Anybody can grumble, but it takes a great 
soul to go on working faithfully and lovingly. 

A CONDUCTOR'S NEGLIGENCE. 270 

The widow of a conductor on the Delaware, Lackawana and Western Railroad 
has lost a large sum of money by the decision of the Appellate Division of the Su- 
preme ^Court of New York. Her husband was killed in a rear-end collision while sit- 
ting at his desk in the caboose of the train. The lower court gave her substantial 
damages for the loss she sustained by her husband's death. The higher court, how- 
ever, said that while the heirs of an ordinary passenger might be entitled to damages if 



he had been killed, the heirs of this particular conductor had no valid claim. It was 
his duty when his train was stalled to send a flagman back along the track to stop any 
trains that might be coming on the same line of rails. He omitted to do so, and in con- 
sequence the next train, being unwarned, dashed into the train in which the conductor 
was sitting and killed him. No one else was killed. The court held that his death 
was due to his own failure to observe the rules of the company, and his heirs were, 
therefore, not entitled to compensation. Thus, the conductor's negligence not only cost 
him his life, but prevented his family getting the compensation for his death that 
would have been paid to the heirs of any other man who might have been killed. 
Still more serious are the consequences of negligence in the things of the soul. How 
many there are who have lost the salvation put within their reach, not so much by 
absolute wickedness as by neglecting to accept God's offer. 

Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of 
you should seem to come short of it. (Heb. 4:1.) 

NEAR A FOG HORN. 271 

A Bostonian, well known in select musical circles planned last spring for the 
erection of a summer cottage on one of the beautiful islands off the southern coast of 
Massachusetts. The site selected commanded an unobstructed view of the ocean and 
the regular channel for shipping, and a pleasant grove offered the necessary shade. 
Nature and art had combined to make the spot an ideal one for the man of music. To 
add to the picturesque scenery, a pretty white lighthouse stood on the hill above, not a 
hundred feet away, whence revolving flashes of light gave warning of a dangerous coast 
to vessels in the dark. 

This was the site selected and a cozy little cottage was built by order of the music 
man. On the christening night a dense fog enshrouded the island. The occupants of 
the cottage had retired, slumber expectant, when a dull boom, boom, boom drove 
thoughts of sleep away and brought the scared, would-be sleepers to the windows. 

The first impression was that a vessel in distress was signalling for help, but inves- 
tigation showed that the sound proceeded from an innocent looking building on the 
lighthouse grounds, within fifty feet of the newly built cottage. 

It was a huge steam foghorn, peeping above the roof, which had for years been 
sounding warnings, as an auxiliary to the lighthouse, but unknown to the Bostonian, 
who had unwittingly placed himself in the lion's mouth. 

Some people go through the world as a fog horn, always foretelling gloomy 
things and banishing peace and good-cheer as far as their influence can reach. What 
are you, a lighthouse or a fog horn? 

WHY LAFAYETTE GAVE UP THE THEATRE. 272 

The New York Journal of November 2, 1778, records the following pleasant inci- 
dent, well worth recalling nowadays when Americans are preparing to erect in his own 
land a memorial to the gallant Frenchman. Would that all Christians were as ready 
to obey the higher law in this matter as Lafayette the lower one ! Here is the quaint 
old record. 

The theatre being open laft evening, the Marquis de La Fayette being in company 
with his Excellency the Prefident of Congrefs, afked him to accompany him to the 
play. The prefident politely excufing himfelf, the marquis preffed him to go. The 
Prefident then informed the marquis that Congrefs having that day paffed a refolution, 
recommending to the feveral States to enact laws for the fuppreffion of theatrical 
amufements, he could not poffibly do himfelf the honor of waiting upon him to the 
play. "Ah!" replied the marquis, "have Congrefs paffed fuch a refolution? Then I 
will not go to the play." 



A BRAKEMAN'S CONVERSION. 273 

A railroad brakeman of Los Angeles, California, recently wrote the Ram's Horn, 
'of Chicago, this account of his conversion: 

I see you have the testimonies of saved policemen and saved conductors, and so I 
give you the experience of a saved brakeman whom God has blessed and kept for 
twelve years. 

Long ago while spending three days in Los Angeles, I passed a band of men and 
women on the street, singing and praying, testifying to the power of God to save from 
sin. I saw by their shining faces that they surely had the joy they were telling about. 
Then the Holy Ghost said to me, this is what you need, and the tears began to flow 
from my eyes, a thing that had not occurred for years, I having been on the road since 
1869, and being with all kinds of men, where I heard nothing good but plenty of the 
bad. 

After a long struggle of twenty-one days, the Lord saved me and said, "Go and sin 
no more." This was one Sabbath morning quite early. I went out on the high hills 
north of Los Angeles to have it out with God all alone. I walked very carefully, so 
afraid was I that some one would see me. I crawled under a low bush or brush and 
hid as much as possible. 

I had just paid the last cent I had for a testament. No one in the state knew me. 
My dear wife and three children were in Lincoln, Neb. I opened the book and I was 
praying God for forgiveness of sins when my eyes, full of tears, fell on the words 
found in Acts 9:11: "For behold he prayeth." And behold, my burden fell off. Joy 
came in. It was as real as anything I ever experienced in my life. I jumped to my 
feet, praising God. I did not care now how many heard me. I had found Him of 
whom the prophets did write. Since then I am often on the street telling men there 
is a way out of sin. 

The Lord blesses me so in my daily railroad work that sometimes when I arise to 
call out the station I am compelled to study a moment to get the station in mind or I 
will say, "Hallelujah" or "Glory." I have been the instrument through Christ in 
bringing many to Him. I praise God for His goodness to me. He has saved my wife 
and two children, who are now a man and woman. How good He is ! 

I could tell you of many instances where He has blessed me in street work; how 
men knelt at the curb-stone asking God for mercy, and then got up and threw whiskey- 
bottles and cards and tobacco on the street and became sober and good citizens ; how 
I offered to pray in the coach with a backslider, and when he saw. I would do what I 
said he would not yield; how in helping a lady on the train as the train was moving, 
I said, "Sister, if you come as near missing Heaven as you did this train you will be 
in a terrible fix." Some time after, when she was on the train she recognized me and 
said those words would be remembered throughout her life, for she was on the train 
for glory! Bless His name. 

INTEMPERANCE MEANS INCAPACITY. 274 

A boy lay on the sands of West Africa, under a burning sky. He was a Christian 
lad, though with a black skin, for he had heard the great message of the missionary and 
had heeded it. To him came another lad, who said, "Makshi, drink this, it is good;" 
holding out a cocoa-nut shell full of fiery gin. Then Makshi took the shell and did a 
daring thing. He turned the shell upside down and poured the horrid liquid on the 
sand. For a moment a fierce light gleamed in the eyes of the other black boy, but he 
choked his wrath down and laughed at Makshi for a fool. In another minute a voice 
was heard calling out, "Come quickly ! A lion has stolen one of the goats !" Makshi 
and his companion rushed off in response to the summons, seized their spears, and 
with- two other black boys, some years older than themselves, went hastily on the 
tracks of the lion. But close on them followed two men with guns; for what could 
spears do against a lion ! 



In his ardour, Makshi soon outstripped his fellow?. He was a nimble fellow, fond 
of leaping and running, and before long was a considerable distance ahead of the rest 
of the party. Suddenly, he was brought to a standstill with a shock. He was looking 
for a lion, but little expected to come face to face with the terrible beast so quickly. 
And now he regretted his temerity in running on alone. The lion had already begun to 
eat the goat, which it had carried under some palm trees. Makshi turned and ran, 
and for a few moments he heard nothing of the lion, but presently he could hear it 
beginning to pursue him. Running for his life, Makshi was quickly overtaken, and 
could almost feel the animal's breath on his back, when, in succession, two shots rang 
out, and with a terrible roar the lion fell mortally wounded. 

"Oh, how you did run, Makshi !" said the black boy who had offered the drink 
to him in the cocoa-nut shell. "Ah, I know I ran for my life, but if I had drunk your 
gir. I could not have run so as to escape," was the reply. 

FIRE IN THE PULPIT. 275 

Mrs. Margaret Bottome says that a Ritualistic clergyman asked her at dinner 
one day what would draw the people to the church, and he added, "I have spent a 
great deal of money out of my own pocket to have the finest music that could be ob- 
tained, but there are not many more that come to the church. What would you ad- 
vise ?" She replied, "Fire in the pulpit." "Fire in the pulpit ?" he said with the utmost 
astonishment. "What do you mean?" "Did you ever see a fire without a crowd 
around?" she remarked. "Will not the cry of fire make people go?" "Yes," he said, 
"but what did you mean by fire in the pulpit?" She saw he did not think of Pentecost, 
and she said, "Didn't St. Peter draw a large congregation after the baptism of the 
Holy Ghost fell upon him, was he not baptised with the Holy Ghost and with fire?" 
"Ah, yes," he said, "Pentecost ! I did not think of that." 

DIVINE GENTLENESS. 276 

Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman relates this touching story: 

At the Winona Bible Conference last summer, the Rev. E. J. Bulgin, D. D., the 
evangelist, told of a man in Chicago whose wife became insane, and yet he loved her 
as never before and gave up his business to give her tender care. The neighbors com- 
plained of her shrieking and he moved to a new neighborhood, built a large house, put 
a great fence about it, only to have other complaints given to him which of course he 
could not heed, for his wife whom he loved was under his own care. One day the 
physician came to him and suggested that he take her to the mountains where she was 
born, possibly the mountain scenery, the music of the birds and the flowers she used to 
love would bring back again her old mental power. 

The journey was made but with disappointing results, and the broken hearted hus- 
band set his face towards Chicago without his cherished desire being granted him. 
But when they reached their city home she fell asleep. Sitting by her bedside he 
scarcely stirred for fear he would arouse her, for she had had no natural sleep for 
months. She slept on and on until the night was passed and then she opened her eyes 
to look with clear vision into his face and say, "Where have I been all this time?" 
and he said, "You have been away on a journey but now you have returned to me." 
"And where have you been all this time?" she said, and his answer made with sobs 
was, "I have been sitting by your side waiting and now you have returned to me." 
This is but a poor picture of God waiting by the sinner's side and seeking to woo him 
while He waits, but some day the sinner will open his eyes and see his Lord and then 
in the memory of all His patience and persistence he will say with David in the text, 
"Thy gentleness hath made me great." 

TRANSFORMED FAULTS. 277 

In one of the famous collections of rare curios to be found in the museums of 

New York City there is a very fine specimen of Chinese carving in jade — a tiger 



crouched ready to spring, with glaring eyeballs of wonderfully natural appearance, 
which look as though cut from a different material and cunningly set in the animal's 
head. Yet such is not the case. The unknown artist found in his piece of jade two 
white spots surrounded by reddish circles — flaws which a less inventive workman 
might have thought unfitted the material for use. But he, instead of casting the stone 
aside as worthless, saw in those blemishes the possibility of two fierce eyes, and 
straightway set about transforming them into something unique and valuable. 

A similar instance is found in the story of an Italian worker in precious stones to 
whom a gentleman took an onyx to be carved. The stone was a remarkably fine one, 
perfect in all but one place where it had a peculiar brownish, mottled appearance. The 
owner was fearful that this flaw would interfere with the carving of the stone, but the 
old lapidary smiled, and said, "Leave that to me." When at last the cutting of the 
stone was completed, the gentleman was delighted to see upon it the beautiful figure of 
the goddess Diana standing upon a leopard skin. The blemish of the stone had be- 
come its crowning beauty. 

These instances bring to us the thought that in some such way as this the faults of 
our human natures shall, under the direction of the Great Artist, be transformed into 
graces, traits of character which give to the individual his greatest worth. The hot, 
hasty temper which is always getting its owner into trouble, once surrendered to the 
ruling hand of the Master, becomes a powerful force to move things in the right way. 
The idle disposition is roused from its indolence, and becomes genuinely eager for ser- 
vice. The suspicious nature learns to think no evil. The uneasy, exacting character 
becomes one zealous to accomplish much for others. The impatient one is transformed 
into gentleness, and the proud spirit no longer "glorieth in the things of itself." 

Only under the Master's hand are these transformations possible. Then shall we 
not hasten to place ourselves where the blemishes of our nature shall be changed into 
beauty? Shall we not gladly surrender the worthless, that it may be made exceeding 
precious? 

A CHILD'S VOICE. 278 

A traveller tells this beautiful and touching story: 

It was midnight when the northern train rushed into the station at C — , usually 
so bustling, but now comparatively deserted. 

There was a delay of some minutes, but no one got out. Many of the travelers 
were half asleep. Others were settling themselves comfortably in their wraps and rugs, 
preparing for the long night journey before them. 

Suddenly the silence was most painfully broken by a loud, harsh voice from one 
of the carriages beginning to roar out a profane and ribald song. What the words 
were, I am thankful to say I do not know, but they were bad enough to horrify every 
one who heard them. 

All the passengers were shocked and indignant. They would gladly have silenced 
the vile and insolent singer, but how was this to be done? 

Hark! Another voice is heard — sweet, clear and childlike; the voice of a little 
girl, distinctly singing the words: 

"Glory to thee, my God, this night, 
For all the blessings of the light; 
Keep me, oh, keep me, King of kings, 
Beneath thine own almighty wings." 

Only a few notes were sung when the hint was taken, and another voice joined, 
then another, and another. Manly basses and tenors threw in their deep tones with all 
their strength, and soon a full and powerful volume of song to the glory of God — "the 
voice of a great multitude" — poured forth, and the voice of the profane singer was 
heard no more. 



Joyful with an angel's joy must that happy child have been, as, with clasped 
hands and streaming eyes, she murmured : "Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the 
victory, through Jesus Christ, our Lord." And deeply moved was many a heart, as 
they joined in this triumph of good over evil, of love and reverence, over scorn and 
hatred, of Christ over Satan. Surely, "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou 
hast perfected praise." 

GOLD AND POTATOES. 279 

An American once visited Thomas Carlyle in company with Professor Tyndall. 
During the dinner he told Carlyle that he was a practical geologist, especially con- 
cerned in mining pursuits. 

"'What do you mine for?' he asked. 

" 'Gold and silver,' I replied. 
"'Gold!' he exclaimed. 'You mine for gold! That's a good-for-nothing pursuit. 
The biggest gold nugget ever found was never half so useful to the world as one good 
mealy potato.' 

THE STONE WITH A FLAW. 280 

I find this story in a recent sermon : 

I went one day to a jeweler's to buy a beautiful stone, and I found one that, with 
its brilliancy and beauty, seemed almost perfect and I said, "Yes, I will take it." Fif- 
teen years ago that was. The jeweler brought me out another, a little larger, and he 
said : "Here is another stone at the same price, but there is a little bit of a flaw in it. 
It can only be detected by a microscope; nobody will ever know. Won't you take it?" 
I resented it with tenfold indignation — giving a stone with a flaw to one to whom I 
had given my heart. And to-day that stone glistens on the finger of one who is very 
dear to me; but it is not the stone with a flaw. 

And yet, dear friends, every service that I bring to Him whom I ought to love 
dearer than life itself has many a flaw in it, and there is no flavor of sacrifice, and 
there is no expensiveness of cost; I am not pouring out my life for Him, and yet He 
poured out His life for me. When I look into the heart of God I find there is no 
spared treasure in Heavens' house; Heaven gave it all for my redemption. There is 
one song I cannot sing without emotion. Ten or fifteen years ago it entered into my 
life. It is this : 

I gave my life for thee; 

My precious blood I shed 
That thou mightst ransomed be 

And quickened from the dead. 

I gave, I gave My life for thee; 
What hast thou given for Me? 

I suffered much for you, 

More than My tongue can tell, 
Of bitterest agony, 

To rescue thee from hell. 

I've borne, I've borne it all for thee; 
What hast thou borne for Me? 

HOW CLOUDS SHOULD BE WORN 281 

This little poem speaks for itself. Oh, that we might live its philosophy! 
"The inner side of every cloud 



Is bright and shining. 
I therefore turn my clouds about 
And always wear them inside out. 

To show their lining." 

A HEART-WINNING DEED. 282 

Two young men of the world attended the church of which the Rev. Russell H. 
Conwell is pastor, in company with their young lady friends. One evening the young 
iolks fell to discussing Rev. Mr. Conwell. The young ladies declared that their pastor 
was animated by the best of motives, but the converts to the beer-keg declared, "Con- 
well is like all the rest of them — he is in it for the almighty dollar." It was of no use 
for two simple, Christian-hearted girls to argue with omniscience, and the question was 
dropped. One stormy winter's night, as these two young men reeled out of a saloon at 
twelve o'clock, they heard a voice saying: 

"My dear child, why did you not tell me before that you were in need? You 
know that I would not let you suffer." 

"That's Conwell," said one of the young fellows. 

"Nah ! get out," replied his companion ; "what's the matter with you ?" 

"I tell you that was Conwell's voice; let's follow him up." 

Through the blinding snow they could distinguish the tall, masculine form of the 
pastor of Grace church with a large basket on one arm, and leading a little girl by the 
hand. Keeping a sufficient distance to avoid recognition, the young men followed to a 
home of need the man whose spoken word in the great Temple had failed to lead 
them to believe in him who "went about doing good," but whose ministry to a needy 
family at midnight brought the tears of sincere repentance and a cry for mercy. Those 
young men became consistent members of Grace church, and vie with others in devo- 
tion to their pastor. 

WITH CHRIST IN THE BOAT. 283 

Some time ago a little class in a Sabbath school, having finished their lesson, were 
looking earnestly at a print in a children's paper they had just received. It repre- 
sented Jesus with the disciples on the sea of Tiberius. The wind had risen since they 
left the shore, and was swaying the sail almost in the water. A very high wave was 
lashing against the prow of the frail boat, and threatening the next moment to sweep 
over all. 

One of the boys said, earnestly, "What a dreadful storm! You can almost hear 
the thunder. I'm glad I was not there." 

Little Ally looked up from the paper and said, "I should like to have been in the 
boat." 

"You would like to have been in such an awful tempest?" asked the first speaker, 
in surprise. "Why?" 

"Because Jesus was there," said Ally. 

There is a hymn which says: 

"With Christ in the vessel, 
I'll smile at the storm." 

STREETS PAVED WITH GOLD. 284 

Some time ago the authorities of the town of Altman, in the Cripple Creek district, 
Colorado, were paving the streets with rock from the waste dump of the Pharmacist 
Mine. Some of it looked so well that samples were taken at random and assayed, and 
the returns showed an average value of $20 in gold a ton. As a result, men began 
hauling away the street surface, until stopped by the police. The Pharmacist Company 
has ceased giving away the dump, and is hauling it to the reduction mills. Wealthy as 
this country is, it has not yet arrived at the point when it can afford to pave the streets 



with ore that contains gold. The precious metal can be put to a use that will do more 
good. When in that glorious time yet to come on this wearied, troubled world, there 
ceases to be need of money, it may be used for street paving, as in that eity which the 
Seer of Patmos saw in vision descending out of the heavens to the earth, in which 
there was neither poverty nor sin. 

And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass (Rev. 
21:21). 

INTERESTING "FOLKS." 285. 

A young girl talking with her grandmother in a spirit of discontent recently said, 
"I wish I had something to occupy my leisure — something in which I could get thor- 
oughly interested, I draw and paint a little, and did a good deal of it at one time, but 
one gets tired of filling one's home with amateurish pictures, even though they are one's 
own. My music is very much on the same order. One year I studied law, and really 
enjoyed it for a while, but there was no object in keeping it up. It's the same way with 
most pursuits." 

"Did you ever try getting interested in folks?" asked her grandmother, quietly. 

She was a plain little woman in a print dress, and Miss Gabrielle did not consider 
the suggestion seriously. 

"Oh, I could never be a philanthropist, if that's what you mean," she answered 
carelessly. 

The grandmother did not explain ; it would have been useless. But she knew what 
Miss Gabrielle and many another like her spent a lifetime without knowing — that an 
interest in humanity is all that makes any pursuit worth while. Wealth, art, learning, 
are worth attaining only for some benefit they are to bestow, and an interest in 
"fclks" is all that makes even life itself enjoyable or valuable. 

A MAN WHO LEFT HIS MARK. 286 

In one of her lectures, Frances Willard told the story of a young nobleman who 
found himself in a little village away off in Cornwall, where he never had been before. 
It was a hot day and he was thirsty, and his thirst increased as he rode up nd down the 
village streets seeking in vain for a place where something stronger than water could 
be had. 

At last he stopped and made impatient inquiry of an old peasant who was on his 
way home after a day of toil. 

"How is it that I can't get a glass of liquor anywhere in this wretched village of 
yours?" he demanded, harshly. 

The old man, recognizing his questioner as a man of rank, pulled off his cap and 
bowed humbly, but nevertheless there was a proud flash in his faded eyes as he ans- 
wered quietly: 

"My lord, something over a hundred years ago a man named John Wesley came 
to these parts," and with that the old peasant walked on. 

It would be interesting to know just what the nobleman thought as he pursued his 
thirsty way. But what a splendid testimony was this to the preaching of John Wesley ! 
For more than a century the word that he has spoken for his Master had kept the curse 
of drunkenness out of that village; and who can estimate the influence for good thus 
exerted upon the lives of those sturdy peasants? What nobler memorial could be de- 
sired by any Christian minister? 

CRAZED BY PROSPERITY. 287 

A millionaire business man in New York city has been committed to the insane 
asylum under circumstances at once sad and full of suggestion. The affliction was 
a great shock to his friends, of whom he had many. His rise to wealth was phenom- 
enal. Less than twenty years ago he was a paper-hanger working for daily wages in 
Chicago. By the assistance of friends he was enabled to open a small decorator's shop, 



and not having enough capital to keep a stock of wall-paper, sold it from samples 
supplied to him by wholesale houses. He had excellent taste in that department of his 
business, and seemed to know by instinct the patterns that would please the public. 
His customers multiplied, and he opened branch establishments in Boston, Philadel- 
phia and New York. In each city he did a large business and accumulated an im- 
mense fortune. He kept a fine yacht, bought the best kind of automobiles and had 
many valuable horses. Recently he purchased a magnificent house and grounds. His 
business continued to grow and his devotion to it did not abate. He worked harder 
than ever. A few weeks ago he showed signs of collapse. His friends noticed that 
he acted strangely, and ultimately it became necessary to place him under restraint. 
The specialists say that the sole cause of his mind being unbalanced was his phenomenal 
business success. How many there are who, in spite of such warnings, give them- 
selves with similar intensity to their business interests. It is a pity that they are 
not so earnest in the pursuit of heavenly riches, for in that pursuit, there is neither 
danger nor disappointment. "The blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and he addeth 
no sorrow with it." (Proverbs x, 22.) 

THE EARTH-GIRDLING WIRES. 288 

Great Britain now has an all-British cable and telegraph line around the world. 
This line has been laid in sections, and by the junction of two of these sections in 
Fiji, the line has been completed. It now goes completely around the world, its land 
stations being, in every instance, on British territory. Starting from Great Britain, it 
passes to Gibraltar, thence under the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea, it 
reaches Bombay; thence crossing India, it passes to Australia. Returning, it goes to 
Auckland, New Zealand, thence to Fiji and the Fanning Islands, thence to Vancouver, 
across Canada, and so by one of the existing lines back to Great Britain. An experi- 
mental dispatch sent around the world by this route, completed the circuit in one hour. 
The longest submarine stretch of cable is from the Fanning Islands- to Vancouver, 3,237 
miles. The total distance from Australia to Vancouver, which is the new section, is 
7,267 miles, or by actual measure of cable, allowing for inequalities in the submarine sur- 
face, 9,272 miles. The total cost is ten million dollars, a sum borne in various propor- 
tions, by Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Great Britain has thus 
linked her vast empire together, and is now assured of communication, whether in peace 
or war, with its dependencies, independent of foreign interference. In no instance, 
does the cable touch soil belonging to another nation. Formerly, communication could 
be had only by a line running over the West coast of Africa, and passing through terri- 
tory belonging to many different nationalities. The cable now completed was, therefore, 
a measure of prudence. If Great Britain became involved in a war with any of those 
governments the telegraph wires might be cut, and so the mother country would have 
lost the means of telegraphic communication with her colonies. Happily, no such 
danger can ever menace the communication between the Christian and his Heavenly 
King. 

I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ 
Jesus (Rom. 8:39). 

WEIGHED DOWN WITH GOLD. 289 

A touching story was told when the Islander was wrecked of a miner who was 
returning from the gold fields with his fortune. 

Seeking to save his money he strapped it round his waist and sprang into the sea, 
trusting to the life preserver to bear him up. The weight of the money, however, caused 
the life preserver to topple over, and the man was drowned. Paul warns the rich, 
and those who would be rich, that the undue love of money leads men into lusts "which 
drown men in perdition." It is a striking figure this, of the man sunk with an excessive 



weight, and it may be well urged in our own day when the golden idol is the sole god 
worshipped by a vast number of men. It is a remarkable thing that our blessed Lord, 
who generally addressed the poor, so frequently warned his hearers against covetous- 
ness. So long as a man holds it in his heart that money is the chief good, so long does 
he, like the man in the Gospel (Luke xii.), ruin his soul. 

A SPANISH WOMAN'S CONVERSION. 290 

E. J. Clemens of Scotland tells this story: 

Pilar was a Spanish Guarani woman between thirty and forty years of age, who 
had been employed as a general servant in my home about three months. 

She could not read, and knew very few words of any language except her native 
Guarani. That is the original language of the Indians in that part of South America. 

Although her means of gaining knowledge and her ability to grasp new thoughts 
were extremely limited, she took great interest in my explanations of God's love, and 
soon began to ply me with questions. At last she asked how God converted a soul, how 
He changed the heart. 

I told her I did not know how He changed the heart of any one, not even my own, 
but that He knew how, and would change hers for her and fill it with love to Him if 
she would let Him. 

A few days afterward I found her sitting in the patio with her head leaned back 
against the wall and her eyes closed. Thinking she probably had a headache, I asked 
whether she were sick. 

"O, no, senora, I am just letting God change my heart." 

A LITTLE BOY'S PRAYERS ANSWERED. 291 

There is a story full of pathos which is told of James Smith, an English laborer 
in the navy yard on the Thames, who had a little boy Johnnie. 

James was a very intemperate man. After the death of his wife, sorrow kept 
him sober for a while, but he took to his cups again, and, as poor Johnnie expressed it, 
"got badded and badded all the time." 

The Wesleyan Methodist tells us that one night the drunkard awoke, a most un- 
common thing for him at such an hour, and lay very still, for he heard a sound. It 
was his motherless boy praying by his bedside. He heard him say, "Please God, make 
daddy a better man, for Jesus' sake." 

James Smith could not sleep any more. He rose very early and went to his work. 
He came home early that night without having drunk a drop of liquor. His heart was 
melted. He said to Johnnie : "What put it into your head to pray for your worthless 
old dad?" 

Johnnie told him it was because he loved him ; and besides he had been to a Sun- 
day class where the teacher had taught him the commandment, "Honor thy father and 
thy mother." 

"Then keep on prayin', keep on prayin', little lad," said James. "I believe God has 
answered you already ; I've been prayin' for myself, that God would make me a better 
man." 

The prayer was answered. James Smith reformed and from that time lived a steady 
Christian life. 

A NEW DIPPER. 292 

A gentleman grown gray tells this interesting story of childhood which has in it 
a striking illustration of the need of the New Birth. 

The old tinker sat out under a tree mending the kitchen ware, and we children 
stood around him in breathless interest. We lived in a quiet country place, and his 
visit each summer was a great event to us. 

Mother brought out an old tin dipper full of holes. The tinker looked it over and 
shook his head. 



"What you need is a new dipper, ma'am," he said: "there's some things that it's 
better not to fuss to mend. It's just wasting time and money. You'd better throw 
them away and get new. Don't forget that, children," he went on after mother had 
gone into the house. "It's a good thing to know how to mend and patch, but there's 
some things that have got so old and rusty and full of holes that it isn't worth while 
trying. There's some folks go on trying to patch up a bad temper all their lives. As 
fast as one place is fixed, another one gives out and they're as bad as ever. What they 
ought to do is to throw the old one away and ask the Lord to give them a new 
one." 

THE VICTORY OF THE CHILDREN. 293 

A curious and pretty custom is observed every year in the city of Hamburg to cele- 
brate a famous victory which was won by little children more than four hundred 
years ago. In one of the numerous sieges Hamburg was reduced to the last extremity, 
when it was suggested that all the children should be sent out unprotected into the 
camp of the besiegers as the mute appeal for mercy of the helpless and the innocent. 
This was done. The rough soldiery of the investing army saw with amazement, and 
then with pity, a long procession of little ones, clad in white, come out of the city and 
march boldly into their camp. 

The sight melted their hearts. They threw down their arms, and, plucking 
branches of fruit from the neighboring cherry orchards, they gave them to the children 
to take back to the city as a token of peace. This was a great victory, which has ever 
since been commemorated at Hamburg by a procession of boys and girls dressed in 
white, and carrying branches of the cherry tree in their hands. 

FILL THE PIT OR SELL THE ASS. 294 

A devout Christian man was once urged by his employer to work on Sunday. 

"Does not your Bible say that if your ass falls into a pit on the Sabbath you may 

pull him out?" 

"Yes," replied the other, "but if the ass had the habit of falling into the same 

pit every Sabbath, I would either fill up the pit or sell the ass." 

WHEN COOPER AND LANDSEER PRAYED TOGETHER. 295 

On one occasion Sir Edwin Landseer was in great trouble and went to Henry 
Graves to chat the matter over with him. But the efforts of Graves to give a little 
comforting advice to the artist were unsuccessful. "Don't think me unkind, Graves," 
said Sir Edwin, "but I am none the happier for this long chat with you. I think I 
will go and have a talk with Cooper." 

So to Thomas Sidney Cooper the great animal painter went. Landseer stated his 
case. 

"We shan't be disturbed," said Cooper, "and I think I can put you in the way 
of getting the very advice and help you want." Cooper placed his hand on Land- 
seer's shoulder. Landseer, who was not of a particularly religious turn of mind, in- 
voluntarily did what that touch of the hand seemed to suggest. Together these two 
great artists knelt down in prayer, and remained on their knees for some time. And 
when they got up Landseer held out his hand to Cooper and said, "Cooper, you have 
put me in the way of getting, yes, and obtaining the very comfort that I stood so much 
in need of. God bless you!" 

THE ARTIST AND THE BIBLE. 296 

The late Sir Sidney Cooper, who died in his ninety-ninth year in 1902, was not 

only a great artist, but a great Christian. When a child he was seen one day kneeling 

in the corner of a green field, quietly looking up to the sky, and evidently asking for a 

blessing. 

In after years he said to a friend: 



"Yes, the Bible is my recreation. And when one really knows the glorious hap- 
piness to be found in the living Word, it is the sweetest recreation for these in de- 
clining years that the soul could possibly desire. The Bible and its truths form my 
life day by day. Here am I an old man, aged and decrepit if you like, but for years and 
years I can look back and say, 'The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.' " 

HOW ONE YOUNG MAN WAS SAVED. 297 

Dr. Henry Clay Trumbull, in his interesting book, "Individual Work for Individ- 
uals," tells this striking and helpful incident: 

"A Y. C. M. A. worker was going to Montreal to attend an International Con- 
vention. As the train approached the city a bright young man came into the train to 
advertise a prominent hotel in Montreal. He inquired of the young man the location 
and advantages of the house and the young man became quite eloquent in describing 
them and convinced the gentleman. He agreed to take a room and then turned the sub- 
ject by asking, 'My young friend, are you a follower of Jesus?' T cannot say that I am, 
Sir,' was the reply. 'Still,' said the gentleman, 'if you were in Christ's service and plead 
as earnestly for His cause as you did for the hotel you represent, you would be a 
valuable helper to your Master and might do a great deal of good to others.' 

"Several years passed away. The gentleman was sitting in his privte office in a 
New England city and happened to call out a question to some one in the hallway. Al- 
most immediately a strange young man appeared at the door and said : 'Excuse me, 
but did you not attend a convention in Montreal several summers ago ?' 'Yes, but what 
of that?' 'Do you remember speaking to a young man on the cars and telling him 
you wished he were working as faithfully for Jesus as he was then working for a hotel 
in Montreal?' 'I think I do,' replied the gentleman, 'now that you recall it.' 'Well,' 
said the young man, 'I have never forgotten it; your words rang in my ears. They 
brought me to the Savior and I am trying to speak word for Him wherever I go.' " 

ENFORCED GENEROSITY. 29S 

Robert Carrick, one of the richest bankers of Scotland a few generations ago, was 
as mean as he was wealthy. Being one day visited by a deputation collecting subscrip- 
tions toward a new hospital, he signed for two guineas; and as one of the gentlemen 
expressed disappointment at the smallness of the sum he said, "Really, I cannot afford 
more." 

The deputation next visited Wilson, one of the largest manufacturers in the city, 
who, on seeing the list, cried: "What! Carrick only two guineas!" 

When informed of what the banker had said, Wilson remarked, "Wait, I'll give him 
a lesson." 

Taking his check-book, he filled in a check for £10,000, the full amount of his de- 
posit at Carrick's bank, and sent it for immediate payment. 

Five minutes later the banker appeared, breathless, and asked: 

"What is the matter, Wilson?" 

"Nothing the matter with me," replied Wilson; "but these gentlemen informed me 
that you couldn't afford more than two guineas for the hospital. Hallo, thinks I, if 
that is the case, there must be something wrong, and I'll get my money out as soon as 
possible." 

Carrick took the subscription list, erased the two guineas and substituted fifty, upon 
which Wilson immediately tore up his check. 

The hospital was built, and here the best part of the story begins, for the rich man 
who was thus forced against his will to raise the amount of his subscription, soon began 
to take an interest in the work the hospital was doing. Before many years he con- 
tributed sufficient to fully endow and maintain it. 

THE TRUE GUIDE BOARD. 299 

The story is related of two men who were walking on the highway to a strange 



city. One said, "I like to see where I am going. This faith you Christians talk about 
is unreasonable and absurd." They came to a fork in the road. No one was in sight. 
Neither of them knew the way. On the guide-post were the words, "To X — one mile." 
The Christian said, "What shall we do ?" The sinner answered, "Why, trust the guide- 
board, of course." "But wouldn't that be walking by faith, just what you criticize us 
Christians for doing?" "No, for I see the guide-board." "True, and we see our 
guide-board, the Bible. We read about the way to Heaven, but we don't see Heaven 
any more than you see X — from this fork in the road. Our faith in the Bible is just 
like yours in the guide-board. We take the testimony of that which we see in regard 
to that which is invisible." 

GOD'S WILLINGNESS TO FORGIVE. 300 

Dr. Chapman tells this touching tale from real life. 

We had in Philadelphia a young man belonging to one of the better families, so- 
called, who by his wayward actions disgraced his father and finally broke his heart. 
After a little he left his home, went to Baltimore, from there to Washington, and 
after months of wandering determined to return. He was ashamed to meet the 
members of his family, but he knew that if he made a peculiar sound at the door 
at the midnight hour there was one who would hear and understand, and when 
he stood before that door it was swung open and without a word of reproach his 
mother bade him welcome. The next morning he did not come down from his 
room, the second morning he was ashamed to come, but the third morning as he de- 
scended the stairway his brother, a physician, met him and said, "Edward, mother 
is dying." She had been suddenly stricken down and was anxious to see him. He 
made his way into her room, knelt beside her bed and sobbed out, "Oh, mother, I 
beseech you, forgive me !" and with her last departing strength she drew close to him, 
placed her lips close to his ear and said, "My dear boy, I would have forgiven you 
long ago if you had only accepted it." This is a picture of God. With a love that 
is infinite, and a pity beyond description, He waits to save every one who will but 
simply receive His gift of life. 

WHY THE ARCHBISHOP WAS AN ABSTAINER. 301 

On one occasion Archbishop Temple gave his own personal reasons for becoming a 
total abstainer. 

"To advocate total abstinence," he said, "I am always prepared to give every mo- 
ment that I can spare, and every energy that I possess, because, though I did not join 
the temperance work until what may be considered comparatively late in life, yet I 
joined it after a long, a very deliberate, and a very careful examination. I came to 
the conclusion that there was nothing else that was proposed which could be compared 
for efficiency with the determination, everywhere and on every occasion, to every sort 
of people, to advocate total abstinence from intoxicating liquors. 

"I do not mean that there is not a great deal else that may be done to further 
the cause, and in various ways I think I do my best to do so by other means than 
this, but I have always put, and have deliberately put, this remedy above every other. 
This simplicity of aim gives a peculiar strength. There may be differences of opinion 
about many things. There may be differences of opinion about the best kind of legis- 
lation to be adopted ; differences of opinion about the best mode of dealing with those 
who are half with us and half not with us ; but this simple aim admits of no difference 
of opinion whatever, and we are here absolutely one. 

"My own reason for becoming a total abstainer was because at the bottom of my 
heart I" care for one thing more than for anything else, and that is the condition of the 
poorer of my own countrymen, whose lives of constant toil are so often made utterly 
miserable by a temptation which they find it so difficult to resist, and which seems to 
dog their steps at every turn as they go." 



THE BETHLEHEM MESSAGE TO MANKIND. 302 

Rev. Dr. Russell H. Conwell finds this striking message from the command ot 
the angels to the shepherds, "Go down to Bethlehem." 

A man sits by his study fire, and as he looks into its blaze, he dreams and medi- 
tates, until, in the exaltion of soul that comes with the associations he has brought 
around himself, angels whisper to him and tell him to write a book, or tell him to un- 
dertake a deed, or to cross the sea and discover a continent — tell him to reach out and 
save the poor and suffering, like Howard, in the prisons of the world. That is 
the sublime moment of his life. The angel speaks and says, "Go down to Bethle- 
hem." 

I remember one day before a battle a company of those who believed in God re- 
tired to their tents to pray. We had received orders to be ready for marching in an 
hour, and they went in and prayed. I was an unbeliever then, and did not go in to 
pray, yet when they came out I felt, "Yes, we are going to face the bullets today, in- 
deed, and I may never see my home again. I wish I had liver better in the past, and 
if I live through this charge that is evidently going to be made to that mountain top 
I will be a better man." And under the inspiration of that hour the angel did whisper 
to me, "Thou canst be all that thou hast the ambition to be, if afer this hour is past you 
will obey its dictates." 

Some of you have sat by the death-bed of a beloved mother, and she has said to 
you, "My son, my daughter, meet me in Heaven." You all sat there — perhaps she 
could not say it to you, but you knew she would have said it if she had been able to 
speak. But in the moment of sorrow of parting with that loved one, you reached the 
highest point of your emotional experience, and your heart was opened to God, and the 
Heavens appeared, and through the clouds the angel came and said unto you, "Go to 
Christ and Bethlehem," and you said, "I will go." But the angels went away, and 
when they departed you forgot, and did it not. 

THE CRY FOR BREAD. 303 

The Rev. Willis P. Hotchkiss makes this vital missionary appeal: 
I went to explore a mountain upon one occasion. I had to leave and return to 
my station, owing to some difficulties. One of the men had become very ill, and I had 
to leave him in the care of three others. I left food to last him until they reached 
the station, instructed them to help the man and charged them not to leave him be- 
cause the bush swarmed with wild beasts. I went my way. The next day the three 
men came into my house without the sick man. "Where is the sick man," I asked, 
"is he dead?" "No." "Why haven't you brought him in?" "We ate the food, and 
we didn't want to stay there to be eaten by lions." "But don't you know the sick man 
will be eaten?" "It don't matter," they replied, "he is going to die anyway; and it 
is the custom of our people, when a man is going to die, to take him into the bush, 
build a fire beside him and leave him." I said, "This is not the white man's way. I 
am going to find him." I did not find him, but what I found was the outline of a 
human form by the side of a little stream, and around that imprint of the form nu- 
merous tracks of lions and hyenas. And as that night I lay in my little open tent and 
the lions roared about us all night and the next morning, five minutes' walk from the 
tent, I came upon the fresh remains of a zebra that had been pulled down and devoured 
by the lions, it did not require any stretch of imagination to tell what had been the 
fate of the poor sick man. 

You shudder at such an exhibition of man's inhumanity to man, which would 
leave a fellow man thus to perish miserably. But by so much as Heaven is higher 
than the earth, by so much as spiritual bread is worth more than the bread that nour- 
ishes the physical body, by just so much is it worse to withhold the gospel from the 
African than it is to withhold bread from his starving physical body ! 



"Is true freedom but to break 
Fetters for our own dear sake. 
And with leathern hearts forget 
That we owe mankind a debt ? 

"No; true freedom is to share 
All the chains our brothers wear, 
And with heart and hand to be 
Earnest to make others free." 

THE CHURCH FIG TREE. 3 o 4 

About four miles from St. Treverne, in Cornwall, is the village of Manaccan, where 
the fine church of St. Dunstan is well known throughout the country because of the 
ancient fig-tree which grows out of the wall of its tower. The church is situated on 
wooded land, and is an ancient building in the early English style, consisting of nave of 
six bays, chancel, south transept, and an embattled western tower. 

On the south side of the tower is a large fig tree, one hundred and fifty years 
old. It grows out of the church wall, and has a trunk eighteen inches in diameter. 
The roots penetrate the thickness of the wall, and when alterations were being made 
in the church they were found to have pushed their way under the seats for a consid- 
erable distance. 

This is a beautiful suggestion of the spiritual fig tree with its fruits of love and 
gentleness and good will which ought to be growing up in every church. 

GOD AT HIS PALACE GATE. 305 

Dr. Hallock re-tells the story of a wise Eastern ruler who when he died left 
word to his people that his son would be their, king, and though they had never 
seen his face, they would judge of his government by his acts. The people promised 
obedience. The influence of the new ruler was wise and kind, and like the beams 
of the sun, it streamed out of the royal palace, bringing joy to every subject. 

The people marveled and said, "We see him not; how does he understand us so 
well?" 

They came to the palace gates and said, "Let the king suffer us to see his 
face." 

The king came forth to them in his royal robes, and when they saw him they re- 
joiced and said, "We know thy face." 

He had walked so often with them as their friend, showing love and kindness 
to all, that when they saw him in the palace, his kingly robes did not disguise him. They 
knew him. 

This is our Christmas Day thought; for this is what Christmas really means. In 
the incarnation our King comes to the palace gate and lets us see his face. "The 
Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the 
only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." 

THE STORY OF A PAWN TICKET. 306 

"Every ticket has its story," said a man acquainted with the pawn shop. "One 
■bitter cold day a mite of a boy, not over nine years old, came in to a pawn shop 
wrapped in his overcoat. This he pulled off, and deposited it upon the pawnbroker's 
counter. 

"Give a dollar *n' quarter?" he asked in pleading tones. 

"Dollar," said the money lender. 

"Oh, please give me a dollar 'n' a quarter!" 
' "Can't do it. Dollar." 

The boy was almost crying, and he begged earnestly for the sum he asked. "I 



want to get my sister's coat out," he said as he laid down 8 cents as interest money. 
This proposition the pawnbroker accepted, and the boy went shivering into the cola 
with his sister's coat. 

"Is you sister going to a dance tonight?" a bystander asked him. 

"No, sir; mom's been sick, an' Maggie had to hock her coat for feed. She's got 
a job now, an' she's got to have a coat to go to work in. I don't mind the cold; I'm 
used to it." 

What a hero such a boy must seem to the angels. 

A STEAMLESS LOCOMOTIVE. 307 

A convention speaker tells of a visit to a locomotive round house. 

"What impressed me most," said he, "was a notice, conspicuously posted, to this 
effect : 'No engineer allowed to take his engine out of this round house with less than 
one hundred and twenty pounds of steam.' 

"I would like to paraphrase that notice," added the speaker, "for the benefit of every 
Sunday school teacher in the land: 'No teacher allowed to go to his class with less 
than one hundred and twenty pounds of steam.' Why, some teachers do not even light 
the fires until they leave home for Sunday school ! How, then, can they expect power 
when they get to their classes? Preparation is not merely important, it is essential. 
An unprepared teacher is as ineffective as a steamless locomotive." 

AN ASH BARREL BIBLE. 308 

A church in New York City acquired its pulpit Bible in a way that was probably 
never paralleled. The church had a new lectern, but the new Bible given to go with it 
was too large. One day a woman came to see the pastor with a neat package which 
she proceeded to untie. 

He was not surprised to see a beautifully bound gilt-edged Bible unfolded in her 
hands; but his feelings changed when she told him that she had found it in an ash 
band. 

A family, after a short residence in the apartment house where she lived, had 
moved out that morning, and had left their rubbish with the janitor to be carted away 
in the city garbage wagon. The costly Bible was among this rubbish." The family 
record had been cut out of it, being evidently the only thing about it that its owners 
valued. 

The minister took it to his new pulpit, and it has been there ever since. It fitted 
the book board exactly. 

There is a sadly pathetic vision of a sacred wedding gift once prized; of resolu- 
tions forgotten; of decaying household piety amid a hurried city life and frequent re- 
movals; of a birth and death, and their little record; of the final loss of religious faith 
and all reverence for its symbols. The family Bible meant only so many pounds of 
paper and leather — a piece of lumber too heavy to carry away. 

There is another form of neglect of the Bible that appears less rude and disre- 
spectful to the holy volume. It adores its beautiful covers, but does not open them — 
a kind of fetish-worship of a book that is never read. Which neglect is the 
worse? 

THE GRACE OF CONTENT. 309 

One of the grandest things Paul ever wrote was when he penned, "I have learned 
in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content." I have seen a story of a little girl 
who learned the same story very early in life. 

Edith is only a schoolgirl, but she has some of the wisdom that is better than any 
to be gotten from books. She does not spend her time fretting over things she does 
not have. She enjoys what she has. 

"Don't you wish you were going to the seashore?" asked Margaret. 



"I would like it," said Edith, "but I'm glad I'm going to grandpa's. I always have 
a good time there." 

"Wouldn't you like to have a new dress like Mary's?" said Jessie. 

"Yes; but I like mine just as well," was the answer. 

Edith has "the little sprig of content" which gives a rich flavor to every- 
thing. 

HOW ONE SALOON WAS CLOSED. 310 

A lady with a cottage organ moved into a house adjoining a saloon in San An- 
tonio, Texas. The partition was so thin that whatever transpired in one place could 
be heard in the other. 

A sweet child of the lady died, and the saloon keeper, who owned the house, pro- 
fessed much sympathy; but the next Saturday night a number of rough drinking men 
met in the saloon to have some violin music, and as it was anything but soothing, the 
poor lonely hearted mother doubtless thought of the organ, and going over to it, began 
playing ; and as she played, sang : 

Jesus, lover of my soul, 

Let me to thy bosom fly ; 
While the raging billows roll, 

While the tempest still is high: 
Hide me, O my Savior, hide, 

Till the storm of life is past, 
Safe into the haven guide, 

Oh, receive my soul at last. 

She had played but one verse when all became quiet in the bar-room. Then she 
lifted up a silent prayer that the hymn might prove a blessing; and so God ordained, 
for when the lady ceased the shutters of the saloon were closed for the night. 

The next evening the saloon keeper sent two lady members of his family to ask 
the lady to play and sing 

Jesus, lover of my soul, 

Wonderingly, the lady complied. Still more strange, he sent in again and 
again. 

The organ and hymn accomplished their mission. The man closed his saloon and 
abandoned the business. 

"BOY LONG LOST." 311 

One of the daily papers recently contained an article headed, "Boy Long Lost." 
It referred to the case of a boy of sixteen who has been missing from home since 
August 4, greatly to the distress of his parents, who earnestly desire his return. 
There are a good many boys in the world who have been long lost. Some of them are 
boys like the stray lad of whom Jesus told in the 15th of Luke. Others of them, com- 
fortable in their snug pharisaism, are lost at home, like the older youth in the parable. 
All alike are greatly mourned by their Heavenly Father, who wonders when they 
will return, and who is planning how to get them back. Come back, boys, you long lost 
laddies, you're wanted at home ! 

THE COAT THAT CARRIED A PLEDGE. 312 

One bitter winter night the Rev. Mark Guy Pearse, the famous English preacher 
had taken a cab from a London suburb, bade the driver come in and get warm. He 
noticed that he had no overcoat, and inquired how it was that he was so insufficiently 
clad. 

The man explained his poverty, and Mr. Pearse said : "Well now, I've got a coat 



upstairs that would suit you. But before I give it to you I'm bound to tell you that 
there is something very peculiar about that coat, and it is right I should explain it to 
you before you put it on." 

"What's that, sir?" said the man, considerably mystified, and not knowing whether 
he might not find it wise to decline the mysterious garment. 

• Said Mr. Pearse, solemnly, "That coat never had a glass of beer or spirits inside 
of it from the day it was made until now. I want you to promise me that as long as 
you wear that coat you will let 'the drink' alone." 

"All right, sir," said cabby, holding out his hand, "all right, sir; I won't upset the 
coat by putting any drink inside of it." 

Many months afterwards Mr. Pearse met the same man again, and learned that he 
had kept to his bargain, and that the coat had never been disgraced by drink. 

THE GOLDEN RULE. 313 

Former Minister Wu, writing in one of our magazines, points out the tremendous 
difference between the "Golden Rule," as given by Confucius and Christ. 

Quoting the word of Jesus, "Whatsoever ye would- that men should do unto you, 
even so do ye also unto them," Mr. Wu comments : "The command is positive and in 
some respects aggressive. It requires something to be done." Then turning to the 
Confucian precept, "Do not do to others what you do not wish others to do to you," 
he says: "Non-interference with other people's affairs is the keynote of this injunction." 
That is to say, the divergence between these two utterances is inherently the di- 
vergence between the out-looking life and the in-looking life, between altruism and 
selfishness. And that divergence culminates in a separation as wide as the span of the 
poles. 

GETTING BLESSINGS OUT OF DIFFICULTIES. 314 

Not many years ago the common screws which carpenters use were made with 
blunt points, and had to be started into the wood with a gimlet. It was a serious 
disadvantage, but no machine had been found that would point a screw, and cut the 
thread upon it. 

One day a workman had trouble with the machine at which he was working. He 
attempted to adjust it, but without entire success, for when he started the machine 
again the first screw caught and was jerked out of place, and turned down to a point 
with a thread cut all the way. The workman stopped the machine and picked up the 
screw, and behold! it was pointed like a gimlet. 

A careless workman would have glanced at it and thrown it aside as defective, 
and hammered away at the machine to compel it to make blunt screws again ; but this 
man had sense enough to see that here was the very thing that they had been seeking 
for years, and by patient study he found out precisely how to construct a machine that 
would constantly impart that twist to the screw, and finish it to a threaded point. 

He took his idea to his employers, and they encouraged him to work out the plan, 
and provided money to construct a machine and get it patented. It was no mere 
lucky accident that accomplished this result; it was the ability to appreciate the bless- 
ing of a thing that went wrong. We may be sure that God has given some extra twist 
to each one of us which, if taken advantage of, will help us in the accomplishment of 
good results in life. 

CARNEGIE ON THE VALUE OF TOTAL ABSTINENCE. 315 

It was reported some time since that Mr. Andrew Carnegie had added ten per 
cent, to the wages of his employes on his Scottish estate, on condition that they be- 
came total abstainers. A journalist wishing to verify this statement wrote him 
asking if it were true. The reply made by Mr. Carnegie was as follows: 

"Men are not required to be total abstainers, but all who are can obtain from me 
a gift equal to ten per cent, of their wages, with my best wishes i upon stating that they 



have abstained for a year. I consider total abstainers worth ten per cent, more than 
others, especially if coachmen, yachtsmen, or men in charge of machinery. Indeed, I 
prefer them for all situations. — A. C." 

In view of Mr. Carnegie's great experience in the industrial world, this opinion 
is of inestimable value. 

A FINISHED RELIGION. 316 

Dr. R. A. Torrey recently said : I have a canny Scot for one of my deacons. This 
deacon was walking down alongside the railway line one morning, when an engineer, 
who he knew had been converted, hailed him, and asked him to come for a ride. He 
climbed up on to the footplate of the engine, and got into a theological discussion with 
him. 

After they had been talking for some time, my deacon said: "I can see you have 
a different religion from mine. You have a religion of two letters, while I have a re- 
ligion of four letters." 

"How do you make that out?" said the engineer. 
' "Your religion," replied the deacon, "is Do. You are always talking about what 
you do. My religion is Done; and I am always talking about what Jesus Christ has 
done when He bore my sins on the cross." 

TEACHING MEN TO FLY. 317 

The Rev. G. Campbell Morgan thinks the greatest picture in the Bible is the 
eagle's nest stirred up by the parent bird in order to teach the young eaglet to fly. Com- 
menting on it he says : 

Having stirred up her nest, "she spreadeth abroad her pinions," the pinions that 
beat the air behind her as she rises superior to it. Where are the eaglets ? Struggling, 
falling; she superior; they are falling. Then what does she do? "She beareth them 
on her pinions." She swoops beneath them, catches them on her wings, and bears them 
up. What is she doing? Teaching them to fly. She drops them again, and again they 
struggle in the air, but this time not so helplessly. They are finding out what she 
means. 

She spreads her pinions to show them how to fly, and as they fall again, she 
catches them again. That is how God deals with you and with me. Has He been 
stirring up your nest? Has He flung you out until you felt lost in an element that is 
new and strange? Look at Him. He is not lost in that element. He spreads out the 
wings of His omnipotence to teach us how to soar. What then? He comes beneath 
-us and catches us on His wings. We thought when He flung us out of the nest it 
was unkind. No; He was teaching us to fly that we might enter into the spirit of 
the promise. "They shall mount up with wings as eagles." He would teach us how 
to use the gifts which He has bestowed on us, and which we cannot use as long as we 
are in the nest. 

There is a purpose in the eagle. What is it? Flight sunward. There is a purpose 
in your life, newborn child of God. What is it? Flight Godward, sunward, heaven- 
ward. If you stop in the nest, you will never get there. God comes into your life and 
disturbs you, breaks up your plans, and extinguishes your hopes, the lights that have 
lured you on. He spoils everything, what for? That He may get you on His wings 
and teach you the secret forces of your own life, and lead you to higher development 
and higher purposes. This government of God is a disturbing element, but, praise His 
name, it is a progressive element. 

THE TRUE RICHES. 318 

Dr. Torry of the Moody Institute of Chicago, told in his meetings in Australia a 
striking story of two men whom he had known in New York. 

One by business sagacity and industry amassed a million dollars, then a second 
million, a third, and a fourth. One day he was "knocked down by a train, and he 



died and had to leave it all. The papers had editorials on his rare business ability. 
The other man amassed half a million dollars. Then death came into his home and 
took his little girl. One night as he sat in the train, he was thinking of her, and the 
tears ran down his face, until he held up his newspaper to hide his emotion from the 
other passengers. The question was borne in upon him — what am I doing for other 
people's daughters? and he resolved to devote ten thousand dollars that year to the 
rescue of perishing girls. The next year he gave fourteen thousand, and at last he 
gave up business altogether to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. He is now 
seventy years of age, but is the youngest man I know of the age. Now, in the light of 
the Judgment Throne, which of those two men did best: the one who made four mil- 
lion dollars, to leave behind ; or the other, who won thousands of souls to meet him in 
eternity ? 

THE HARD SCHOOL OF EXPERIENCE. 319 

A well-known minister vouches for this striking incident: 

Colonel Clarke, had a mission house, in which he used to hold services every night 
in the year. One night a notoriously hard man, named George Buck, was in the meet- 
ing, and the Spirit strove with him. When the meeting ended, Colonel Clarke held out 
his hand, and said. "George, I believe if you don't quit your sin and turn to Christ, 
God will take away your wife and daughter, and lock you up." George was very 
angry. He said, "Colonel Clarke, you mind your business, and I'll mind mine." 

One month from that night George Buck's wife lay in the cemetery; his daugh- 
ter had been taken away and placed in better hands. 

This brought the father to his senses, and broken and repentant, he gave himself 
in complete surrender to the service of God. 

"GOD IS LOVE." 320 

When Mr. Moody had his first tabernacle built in Chicago he wanted everybody 
that came into that building to know that God is love, and, for fear the preachers would 
not talk about it often enough, he had it put up in gas jets right at the back of the plat- 
form, and there it shone in letters of fire — "God is Love" — so that every night in the 
year, when people came into that building, they would get that great truth burned into 
their eyes and into their hearts. One night a poor outcast drunkard came up the 
street. It was too early for church, though the gas had been lit, and thinking that he 
might find rest and shelter there, he walked up the steps, pushed the door open, and, 
looking down the building, saw those fiery letters above the platform, telling him "GOD 
IS LOVE." He pulled the door to, walked down the steps, and went away, saying, 
"God is love? No, God is not love. If He were love, He would love me; but God 
does not love such a miserable wretch as I am." But that sentence had been burned 
into his heart, and, after a little while, he turned round and came back, walked up 
the steps of the building, and sat down right at the back, behind the stove. 

After a while, Mr. Moody came in and preached one of his characteristic sermons. 
When the service was over he went down, and found this man behind the stove, crying 
like a child. "What is the trouble?" said Mr. Moody. "What was in my sermon that 
touched you?" "Oh," said the man, "I didn't hear a word of it." "Was it the text?" 
"No." "Or the singing?" "No." "Well, what is the matter; what broke your heart?" 
"It was that text up there in the gas," said the man, "GOD IS LOVE !" Mr. Moody 
sat down beside him, took out his Bible, showed him how ready God was to pardon 
sin, and the man went out of that building rejoicing in the love of God. 

A HANDFUL MORE. 321 

A gentleman well known for his large benefactions, was asked what part of his 
mcome he was in the habit of contributing to the Lord's treasury. "I do not know," 
said he; "I do very much as the woman did who was famous for the excellence of her 
rhubarb pies. She put in as much sugar as her conscience would allow, and then shut 



her eyes and put in a handful more. I give all my conscience approves, and then add 
a handful without counting." 

FAITH AND WORKS GOING TOGETHER. 322 

Dr. O. P. Gifford, of Buffalo utters this striking paragraph. 

Christians are the salt of the earth, but the salt, not the earth is to do the seek- 
ing; Christians are the light of the world, but the light, not the world is to do the 
seeking. Life is active, aggressive. We assume that men are dead in sin, and then urge 
them to act like live men, seek the resurrection and the life. We claim to be alive unto 
God, and then sit down and wonder why the dead do not seek us. If Martha and 
Mary had waited in the home for the dead brother to come and be raised they would 
have waited a long time, they sent for Jesus, met Him at the tomb, friends rolled the 
stone away, and Christ spoke. Go where the dead are, go with Christ the life, work 
to roll away the stone, do all you can to bring the living Christ and the dead soul 
face to face, and results will follow. 

A DUMB CHURCH. 323 

Dr. George C. Lorimer, pertinently says: 

The time has come for tpress and pulpit to speak out, ring clear, the inspired ex- 
hortation : "Abstain from every form of evil." I am aware that to do this exposes the 
preacher to the criticisms of those who, like Lord Melbourne, resent the application 
of religion to every day life. But a dumb church in an evil age is itself the worst of 
evils. It lends the sanction of its non-committal silence to the iniquities and oppres- 
sions of the times and so facilitates their progress. 

A WORD IN SEASON. 324 

Jesse Lee, the founder of Methodism in New England, served as Chaplain of 
Congress for several terms. 

Once upon the adjournment of Congress he took the south bound stage for his 
Virginia home, only to find it already crowded with members traveling in the same 
direction. His two hundred and sixty pounds noticeably and materially decreased the 
space and increased the load. At length the coach, pitching and lurching along the 
sticky road of red clay, gave a plunge into an apparently bottomless mud hole, whence 
the steaming horses declined to pull it. The passengers got out, and after much labor 
with fence rails succeeded in getting it started. Upon its halting at the top of a hill for 
the passengers to resume their seats, the chaplain took his with the rest, although from 
the absence of mud from his clothes and hands, it did not appear that he had assisted 
in extricating the vehicle. 

"Where was the chaplain," asked one, "when we were getting the stage out of the 
mud?" 

A merry laugh passed round at his expense. He bore their mild badgering in 
good part, until at length one said a bit tartly, "It was rather un-Christian in the chap- 
lain to stay with us when all was quiet and smooth, and then to desert us when the 
storm and wreck came." 

"Ah, gentlemen," said the chaplain, "I intended to have pried with you, but 
some of you swore so hard I went out behind a tree and prayed for you." 

The recollection of their language, together with the fineness of the rebuke, put 
a stop to their badgering, as well as to the use of such language for the rest of the 
journey. Who knows but that for some it may have been a nail in a sure place for 
life! 

TOIL CONQUERING PRIDE. 325 

John Adams, the Second President of the United States, used to relate the fol- 
lowing anecdote : 

"When I was a boy I used to study Latin grammar; but it was dull, and I hated 



it. My father was anxious to send me to college, and therefore I studied the grammar 
till I could stand it no longer; and going to my father, I told him that I did not like 
to study, and asked for some other employment. 

"My father said: 'Well, John, if Latin grammar does not suit you, try ditch- 
ing — perhaps that will. My meadow yonder needs a ditch, and you may put by Latin 
and try that.' 

"This seemed a delightful change, and to the meadow I went. But soon I found 
ditching harder than Latin, and the first forenoon was the longest I ever experienced 
That day I ate the bread of labor, and glad was I when night came on. That night I 
made some comparison between Latin grammar and ditching, but said not a word 
about it. 

"I dug next forenoon, and wanted to return to Latin at dinner, but it was hu- 
miliating, and I could not do it. At night toil conquered pride; and though it was one 
of the severest trials I ever had in my life, I told father that if he chose I would go back 
to Latin grammar. 

"He was glad of it, and if I have ever since gained any distinction, it has been 
owing to the two days' labor in that ditch." 

THE GOOD MAN'S HAND ON HIS SHOULDER. 326 

The Rev. Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler once visited in Scotland, the church where 
Robert Murray McCheyenne used to preach. He diligently inquired if any one there 
had heard McCheyenne preach, and finally one old man was brought to the front. 

"Can you tell me," said Dr. Cuyler, some of the texts of McCheyenne? And the 
eld man made reply, "I don't remember them." "Then can you tell me some sentences 
he used?" And again the reply was, "I have entirely forgotten them." With a feel- 
ing of disappointment the great Brooklyn preacher said, "Well don't you remember any- 
thing about him at all?" "Ah," said the man, "that is a different question. I do 
remember something about him. When I was a lad by the road side playing, one day 
Robert Murray McCheyenne came along and laying his hand upon my head he said, 
'Jamie, lad, I am away to see your poor sick sister,' and then looking into my eyes he 
said, 'And Jamie I am very concerned about your own soul.' I have forgotten his 
texts and his sermons, Dr. Cuyler, but I can feel the tremble of his hand and I can 
still see the tear in his eye." 

A GOSPEL EQUIPMENT. 327 

A missionary tells of a native Chinese convert who was preaching before a large 
conference of workers when he suddenly exclaimed : 

"Ask the Master for Peter's hook to bring up the fish ; for David's crook to guide 
the sheep aright; for Gideon's torch to light up the dark places; for Moses' guiding 
rod; for David's sling to prostrate your giant foe; for the brazen serpent to cure the 
bites of the world's snakes; for gospel seed with no tares in it; for the armor in- 
ventoried by Paul in Ephesians ; and, above all, for the wonderful Holy Spirit to help 
at all times." 

A RAILROAD WITHOUT SALOONS. 328 

The builder of a railroad along the line of which saloons have never been 
allowed to exist recently wrote the following letter to the editor of the "Ram's 
Horn." 

"In 1890 I built the St. Louis, Watkins and Gulf Railway from Lake Charles to 
Alexandria, La., one hundred miles. I bought and incorporated all the town sites along 
the line. The deeds for all lots sold contain the following anti-liquor clause: 

" 'That the said purchaser, his heirs or assigns, shall not at any time manufacture 
or sell intoxicating liquors upon said premises, except for medicinal, mechanical or 
scientific purposes ; and should this condition be broken, this deed shall immediately and 
ipso facto be and become null and void and the title shall immediately and ipso facto* 



revert to and vest in said vendor, and said vendor shall not be under any obligations to 
return any part of the purchase price.' 

"The above clause has just been upheld by the Appellate Court. There has been 
only the one violation of the anti-liquor clause in the thirteen years and there will not 
be another. This is real prohibition and the only railway in the world along which 
liquor cannot be sold." 

COURAGE AND SAFETY. 329 

High courage is always the safest course. 

Ethan Allen, the great general, who, in the Revolutionary War, captured Fort 
Ticonderoga, was afterward captured while attempting to make an attack on Mont- 
real. He and his few men were taken before General Prescott. When he first saw 
Allen, he said, "Who are you?" "My name is Allen," he replied. "Are you the one 
who took Fort Ticonderoga?" "Yes, the very one." This made the general very angry, 
and looking at the captured soldiers he ordered his guard to bayonet them. But Allen, 
tearing open his jacket, said, "Thrust your bayonet into my breast, if anybody's, for 
if it 'had not been for me, they would have done nothing; I am the one to blame, not 
they." This surprised the general, so that he told the prisoners he would let them 
live until they could be taken to Tyburn, where they would die by hanging. But they 
were released a while afterward. 

The courage of this great man saved both his own life and that of his men. 

A DIFFERENT SHEPHERD. 330 

In classic story we are told that when Scipio junior was appointed to command the 
Roman army and fight the Numantines, he found it enervated, demoralized, and 
beaten. He reorganized it, and infused his own indomitable spirit into it, and then 
engaged and routed the enemy. The officers of the foe rebuked their soldiers, and asked 
why they fled from those whom they had been accustomed to call sheep, and whom they 
had pursued so often. A Numantine soldier answered, "The sheep are the same still, 
but they have another shepherd." 

Christians are only brave and heroic when they are in the flock of Jesus, and are 
led and inspired by the Good Shepherd. 

KINDNESS FOR KINDNESS. 331 

A beautiful story is told of M. Louis Sautter, a well-known Parisian banker, 
one of the directors of the McAll Mission, a man who is always doing kind deeds. 

One day during a strike of cab drivers he was waiting for an omnibus. Trav- 
elers in France know that standing is not permitted in omnibuses, and that often one 
must wait long for an omnibus with a vacant place. A young cabby drew up before 
M. Sautter. "Get in, quick, M. Sautter," he said, "and permit me to take you free." 
"But I don't know you," replied M. Sautter, who it should be premised, is a venerable 
man well on in the seventies. "No matter, get in quick !" said cabby, and M. Sautter 
got in. On arriving at home M. Sautter tried in vain to pay him. "At least," he said, 
"tell me your name that I may thank you." "Oh," was the reply, "M. Sautter does good 
to many a person who does not know his name; mayn't a little cabby have the same 
pleasure?" And away he drove at full speed. 

FROM STARLIGHT TO SUN. 332 

A man in Burmah possessed a copy of the -Psalms in Burmese, which had been 
left behind by a traveler stopping at his house. Before he had finished the first read- 
ing of the book, he resolved to cast his idols away. For twenty years he worshipped 
the eternal God revealed to him in the Psalms, using the Fifty-first, which he had 
committed to memory, as a daily prayer. 

Then a missionary appeared on the scene and gave him a copy of the New Testa- 
ment. The story of salvation through Jesus Christ brought great joy to his heart, and 
he said : "For twenty years I walked by starlight ; now I see the sun." 



BREAKING IN ORDER TO BLESS. 333 

Mrs. Ballington Booth brings out very clearly the blessings which come through, 
sorrows and trials. She says: 

God has very often to tear asunder the heart in order to bring out of it and create 
within it the service and love He desires. A very beautiful illustration of this is 
penned in the following beautiful lines sent us by a friend, but without the author's 



Perhaps you have heard of the method strange, 

Of violin makers in distant lands, 

Who by breaking and mending with skilful hands, 
Make instruments have a wider range 

Than ever was possible for them so long 

As they were new, unshattered and strong. 

Have you ever thought, when the heart was sad, 
When the days seemed dark and the nights unending, 
That the broken heart by the Father's mending 

Was made through sorrow a helper glad, 
Whose service should lighten more and more 
The weary one's burden as never before? 

Then take this simple lesson to heart 

When sorrows crowd and you cannot sing, 

To the truth of the Father's goodness cling; 
Believe that the sorrow is only a part 

Of the wondrous plan that gives through pain 

The power to sing more glad refrain. 

COMMUNION WITH GOD. 334 

The Rev. Reginald J. Campbell, the new pastor of City Temple, London, has this 
helpful paragraph in a recent sermon on Communion With God : 

"In every century personal communion with God has been held to be the highest 
privilege of the soul. For by communion I am not speaking of prayer only in the 
sense of petition. Our joy in the presence of our loved and nearest does not spring 
from the fact that they or we are begging from each other, though we delight to 
give ourselves to each other. Communion of soul is the only real communion. 

"The method of such communion is not far to seek. I am not afraid of a trite ob- 
servation, or of repeating something that is venerable, when I say, The first essential 
for busy men is withdrawal from your fellows that you may be alone with God. Into 
the tabernacle in the wilderness! Leave the multitude at the tent door; you will serve 
them better when you return. Fathers and mothers, burdened for your children, 
life means many things to you; it would become simple and glorious and beautiful 
if you left them sometimes that you might bear them on your hearts to God. 

" 'Oh, what peace we often forfeit ! 
Oh, what needless pain we bear, 
All because we do not carry 
Everything to God in prayer.' " 

QUEEN VICTORIA'S WISH. 335 

A very intimate friendship existed between the late Dean Farrar and Queen 
Victoria. The Dean did not often refer to this friendship, but once he broke the rule 
of silence. 



It was on the occasion of the first anniversary of the accession of King Edward 
to the throne. At the service in Canterbury Cathedral he told how the Queen, after 
hearing one of her chaplains preach at Windsor, on the second advent of Christ, spoke 
to him, saying, "Oh, how I wish that the Lord might come during my lifetime." "Why," 
asked the preacher, "does your Majesty feel this very earnest desire?" With a 
countenance lighted by deep emotion the Queen replied, "I should so love to lay my 
crown at His feet." 

EARLY FAILURES. 336 

There is no royal road to greatness, and most men who have come to power 
and usefulness have had to wade through early failures. The late Dean Farrar 
used to tell with great pleasure of the failure of his own first sermon. 

He was invited by a clergyman of his acquaintance to deliver an address on Christ- 
mas afternoon to the inmates of the old people's wards in the workhouse. Then, as 
ever, tremendously conscientious in the matter of sermon preparation, the newly-or- 
dained deacon would not trust anything to chance, but in the hour or so at his disposal 
jotted down the outlines of a sermon on the "Song of the Angels." The sermon quite 
failed to hold the attention of the feeble old men and women who listened to it. They 
shuffled uneasily in their seats, looked everywhere but at the preacher, and one by one 
got up and walked out, "in disgust." 

THE PERSONAL TOUCH. 337 

Some of the greatest men that ever lived have felt that their greatest opportuni- 
ties have been their privilege to personally touch some individual life and turn it from 
sin to righteousness. Mr. Gladstone was often doing this kind of work. Many years 
ago, he heard of two young men in the village who had become notorious for their 
drinking habits, and he determined to make an effort to save them. He invited them 
to see him at the castle, and there, in "the Temple of Peace," as his library was called, 
he impressively appealed to them to change their ways, and then knelt with them, and 
fervently asked God to sustain and strengthen them in their resolve to abstain from 
that which had hitherto done them so much harm. The sequel cannot be told better 
than in the language of one of the men concerned, who says : "Never can I forget the 
scene, and as long as I live the memory of it will be indelibly impressed on my mind. 
The Grand Old Man was profoundly moved by the intensity of his solicitation. My 
companion is now a prominent Baptist minister, and neither of us has touched a drop 
of intoxicating drink since, nor are we ever likely to violate an undertaking so im- 
pressively ratified in Mr. Gladstone's library." 

SOWING AND REAPING. 338 

A gentleman visiting a farmer saw him scattering grain broadcast upon his field, 
and asked, "What are you sowing?" "Wheat," was the answer. "And what do you 
expect to reap from it?" "Why, wheat, of course," said the farmer. The same day 
some little thing provoked the farmer, and he flew into a passion, and swore most pro- 
fanely. "And what are you sowing now?" said the gentleman. A new light at once 
flashed upon the farmer from the question of the morning. "What," he said, "do 
you take such serious views of life as that — of every mood and word and action?" 
"Yes," was the reply, "for every mood helps to form the permanent temper; and for 
every word we must give an account; and every act but helps to form a habit; and 
habits are to the soul what the veins and arteries are to the blood — the courses in 
which it moves, and will move forever. By all these things we are forming char- 
acter, and that character will go with us to eternity, and according to it will be our 
destiny for ever." 

THE GLORY OF GROWING OLD. 339 

A recent writer gives with great clearness the difference between getting old and 
growing old. 



Growing old and getting old are very different things. There are many in the 
world who get old, but who never grow old at all. Growing old is a progress, like 
growing wise or growing good. As the years pass by some people, they bring gifts, 
they add continually to their lives. As they pass others they are forever taking away 
something, subtracting from their lives. 

One man loses physical powers; he cannot eat as much, or sleep as well, or enjoy 
his bodily life as thoroughly, and it is all a loss and burden. Another man goes through 
the same experience, and he discerns it to be God's voice saying to him, "You cannot 
now live as much in the body as you have been doing; you cannot get your pleasure 
that way; you must look to the mind and the heart and the soul for pleasure and inter- 
est and power in living." The first of these gets old, and it bring nothing to him. 
The second grows old, and it is an enlarging, enriching, beautifying experience. 

Aging is like every other way of life : if we take it from God, as God meant it 
to be taken, it is a great blessing; if we miss the divine Providence in it, it may be a 
misery, and even a curse. In the great French drama one says to Cardinal Richelieu, 
"Art thou Richelieu ?" and he replies, "Yesterday I was Richelieu ; today I am a poor 
old man; tomorrow, I know not what." If one went thus to the Apostle Paul, we 
might have heard him say, "Yesterday I was Saul the persecutor; today I am Paul, 
the servant of Jesus Christ; tomorrow I win my crown." The one got old, the other 
grew old. What a difference! 

THE SEVERITY OF LOVE. 340 

A noted preacher brings out very strongly a side of love which is often overlooked. 
He says: 

There is a point where love is your enemy, and will destroy you rather than fail 
of its object: it can be satisfied with nothing less than the highest. For love is noble, 
and God is nobleness, because God is love. On the other hand, love will never spare 
the loved, because it is calling to higher heights day by day. Your increase of knowl- 
edge of the workings of God, of His ways with men, must lead you to know that you 
will not be placed always in the green pastures and led beside the still waters. God has 
something grander than this for the children of men. We have read of that ever- 
great commander who, when asking for someone to lead a forlorn hope, received with 
gladness the offer of his boy to do it. The old warrior's eyes lighted with love, and 
with pride he looked at him; he handed him the standard, and said, "There is your 
task, yonder the enemy; go forward." Was it love that spake, or was it indifference? 
Was it the love that would have placed its arms around him and shielded him from 
all harm and from all danger, love that would have cherished the feminine — which 
sometimes, after all, is the strongest — at the expense of the grandest in that boyish na- 
ture? No; in that warrior I read my God, who spared not his own Son, but delivered 
Him up for us all, and as He is so are we in this world. 

"SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND." 341 

If the sea were drained, what treasures we could find upon the old ocean floor — 
galleons laden with gold beyond the dreams of avarice! Lesser waters than the sea, 
however, hide treasure which can be found. The Tiber of old Rome is to be searched, 
and a lake in the Republic of Colombia is to be drained for the gold and jewels, votive 
offerings, that were thrown into it by the natives long ago. The ancients used to 
throw treasures to Father Tiber as offering to the gods, and the current of the river 
has swept away the arms and armor of thousands of warriors who fought on the 
banks. The quest for gold and jewels at the bottom of the Lake of Guatavita in Co- 
lombia is at once more romantic and surer to be profitable. The lake lies ten thousand 
feet above the sea and was held sacred by the tribes of natives that lived near it when 
the Spaniards came. Every year the savages, headed by their king, visited the lake. 



The king, covered with gold dust, plunged into the waters, and his subjects threw after 
him gold and silver and emeralds. 

When Quesada and his Spaniards made their way up the Andes to the lake, the 
natives threw their treasures to the god of the lake for safekeeping. Now an English 
company is to drain the lake by means of a tunnel and rake the bottom. 

There are few treasures discovered save by diligent search. "Seek and ye shall 
find" is a precept ever true. Every time the Bible is studied, every time the truths of 
the Kingdom of God are pondered afresh some new meaning is discovered by the ear- 
nest soul, some richer possibility is thrown open, some spiritual treasure comes to the 
surface. 

CHRIST REVEALS GOD TO US. 342 

An English preacher recently said : 

God hath not left Himself without a witness; and the spiritual man, living the 
life of the Cross, never flinches from the declaration that, in spite of the seeming, "Be- 
hind a frowning Providence," there is a smiling face. 

Long ago I remember a lady in this church telling me of her experience of one, 
a woman, very poor, even ignorant, who had had a hard, strenuous life, and who finally 
was dying without the hope of doing anything for her children, who made a somewhat 
remarkable declaration on her deathbed to her visitor. The visitor was trying to con- 
vince her, as I am trying to convince you, of the testimony of the spiritual man, that 
God is love. The poor woman answered by saying, "I can believe all you declare about 
Jesus Christ, but 

1 don't believe in god."" 

You would scarcely think it possible that the declaration could have been made, but, 
you see, it was made by one who was not accustomed to think. She continued : "If 
Christ were here, the real Christ of whom you speak, I could tell Him all my troubles ; 
but I cannot tell them to God." 

DRIVEN BY SUNLIGHT. 343 

Stephenson, the inventor of the locomotive, was out one day with Sir Robert Peel, 
and as the locomotive ran by with a train on the railway, Stephenson said, "Do you 
see that train? What is it that moves that engine?" Sir Robert said he supposed it 
was the fife and steam. "No," said Stephenson, "it is the light of the sun." "The light 
of the sun?" Sir Robert said; "How is that?" "Why," answered Stephenson, "every bit 
of fire in the world is the light of the sun, and the heat of the sun's rays that has been 
preserved in plants, and in the peat-beds and coal-beds, and every particle of light and 
heat that we have in the world, all comes from the sunlight, and so it is the sunlight 
that drives that engine." 

So it is the light and warmth of the Sun of Righteousness that energizes the entire 
spiritual world. 

CONVERTED IDOLS. 344 

A missionary at Travoncore, India, saw one morning a native coming to his house 
with a heavy burden. On reaching it he laid on the ground a sack. Unfastening it, 
he emptied it of its contents — a number of idols. 

"What have you brought these here for?" asked the missionary. "I don't want 
them." 

"You have taught us that we do not want them, sir," said the native; "but we 
think they might be put to some good use. Could they not be melted down and formed 
into a bell to call us to church?" 

The hint was taken; they were sent to a bell founder and made into a bell, which 
now summons the native converts to praise and prayer. 



SHORT-CIRCUITED LIVES. 345 

The wires became crossed; there was a flash, a brilliant pyrotechnic display, and 
then the machinery that ought to have lasted years longer was still — a mass of inert 
matter fit only to go to the shop and undergo extensive repairs. "She got short-cir- 
cuited, and burned herself out," was the explanation of the engineer. The pleasures 
that come from self indulgence and passion are short-circuits. They are very intense, 
but soon burn out and leave only disaster behind them. All normal pleasures are mod- 
erate, but they grow better as the years go on. 

GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH HIS MOTHER. 346 

There is usually a period in every young man's life when his idea of having a good 
time means being away from home. 

One such young man had to work till six o'clock, and had got into the habit of 
staying in town to dinner and spending his evenings at the theater, or in calling on 
friends. One afternoon his father came to him and asked him if he had any engage- 
ment for the evening. The young man had not. 

"Well, I'd like you to go somewhere with me." 

The young man himself tells what happened : 

" 'All right,' I said. 'When shall I meet you ?' 

"He suggested half-past seven; and I met him then, prepared for the theater and 
a lecture on late hours. He had combined the two on several previous occasions. But 
when he appeared, he said he wanted me to call with him on a lady. 'One I knew 
quite well when I was a young man,' he explained. 

"We went out, and started straight for home. 

" 'She is staying at our house/ he said. 

"I thought it strange, but I said nothing. 

"Well, we went in, and I was introduced with all due formality to my mother 
and my sister. 

"The situation struck me as funny and I started to laugh, but the laugh died away. 
None of the three even smiled. My mother and my sister shook hands with me, and 
my mother said she remembered me as a boy, but hadn't seen much of me lately. Then 
she invited me to be seated. 

"It wasn't a bit funny then, although I can laugh over it now. I sat down, and 
she told me one or two anecdotes of my boyhood, at which we all laughed a little. 
Then we four played games for a while. When I finally retired, I was invited to call 
again. I went up stairs feeling rather small, and doing a good deal of thinking." 

"And then?" asked his companion. 

"Then I made up my mind that my mother was an entertaining woman, and my sis- 
ter a bright girl. 

"I'm going to call again. I enjoy their compan and intend to cultivate their ac- 
quaintance." 

KEEPING OUR YOUTH. 347 

May Anderson Hawkins has a very pretty poem illustrating our power to re- 
tain our youth while the years are added, and we are keeping step with the march 
toward eternity. She says: 

Am I growing old when my heart can wake 

To the joy of a perfect day? 
Can happily laugh as the white clouds break, 

And scatter and float away? 

Not growing old — oh no ! oh no ! 

But nearing the time when the gleam and the glow 



Of an endless day will illumine me so 
, That youth shall be mine alway. 

Am I growing old when the song of a bird 

Can thrill me with tremulous joy, 
Can wake in my heart a music not heard 

By others, which naught can destroy? 

Not growing old, but nearing the bound 
Of a wonderful land, where the echoing sound 
Of the soul of all music forever is found, 
And happiness knows no alloy. 

Am I growing old when the dews can weave 

A spell to dazzle my sight, 
And charm my heart till they thrill and leave 

In my breast a dream of delight? 

Not growing old, but nearing the shore 
Where friends, now parted, shall part no more, 
Where a Light that is fadeless shall cover me o'er 
Till it leaves no shadow of night. 

WHY THE ROBIN'S BREAST IS RED. 348 

Robin Redbreast did not always have a surname. An old legend tells us how it 
came to be applied to him. A certain tribe of Indians had a form of worship in which 
a sacred fire was kept burning continually. One day the keeper of the sacred fire, 
for some reason, departed from the camp, leaving his trust to the care of his little son. 
This little son had an enemy in the form of a large bear, that had for a long time tried 
to do him an injury. 

"Now," thought Bruin, "is my chance." All day the little boy kept the flame burn- 
ing brightly, but as night drew on he grew drowsy, and at last, in spite of his efforts tc 
stay awake, sleep overcame him. 

Then came in the crafty enemy, and with his huge paw put out the fire — all but 
one tiny spark. 

But, though the little boy had an enemy, he had also a friend, a little brown bird 
that he had once befriended in time of need. When the little robin saw Bruin's wicked 
deed, he flew to the fire, and, balancing his little body above the spark, beat his wings 
until a tiny flame arose from the sparks ; and the flame rising higher and higher, soon 
the fire was as bright as before. But the reflection of the flame dyed the bird's breast 
a brilliant crimson. Since that time he has been called Robin Redbreast, and his 
little red breast is a lasting monument to his fidelity and love for one who had done 
him a kindness. 

FASTING AND FEASTING. 349 

In a remarkable chapter on Christ in Society, in his well known volume "Imago 
Christi," Rev. Dr. Stalker, emphasizes the remarkable contrast between our Lord and 
his forerunner John the Baptist. John waited until people came to him, Jesus went 
to them. "The disciples of John fasted, those of Jesus feasted," and Dr. Stalker re- 
marks : 

Hospitality affords unrivalled opportunities of conversation, and Jesus made use 
of these to speak words of eternal life. If you carefully examine His words, you 
will be surprised to find how many of them are literally table talk — words spoken to 
His fellow guests at meals. Some of His most priceless sayings, which are now the 



watchwords of His religion, were uttered in these commonplace circumstances, such 
as "They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick," "The 
Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost," and many others 

In such simple ways it is possible to dignify life and to find opportunities of imi- 
tating the Master, who "went about doing good." The food may be but "barley loaves," 
but the message may be from God. 

JOHN WESLEY'S CONVERSION. 350 

Speaking of his conversion, John Wesley says : 

I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for 
my salvation; and an assurance was given me, that he had taken away my sins, even 
mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death; and I then testified openly to all 
there what I now first felt in my heart. 

Eighteen days afterwards he preached at St. Mary's, Oxford, a sermon from 
the text, "By grace are ye saved, through faith," in the course of which he said : 

Faith is a full reliance on the blood of Christ, and a trust in the merits of His 
life, death, and resurrection — a recumbency upon Him as our atonement and our life, 
as given for us and living in us; and, in consequence hereof, a closing with Him and 
cleaving to Him as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, or, in one 
word, our salvation. 

A HELPING HAND. 35i 

Sitting back in the hall during the after-meeting in a recent Revival was a young 
woman to whom a Christian business man spoke, asking her as to her spiritual state. 
She said that at the women's meeting the day before she had trusted the Savior, but 
that she was not happy. On inquiring if she knew of anything that accounted for her 
unhappiness, she said she was working in a cigarette factory, and she had the feeling 
that it was not the right place for her. The worker referred her to a lady sitting near, 
and this lady at once told her husband, who was in the meeting about the girl's case. 
He solved her difficulty at once by engaging her for his store, thus removing the 
cloud from the young convert. 

GOODMAN DEATH. 352 

I do not know the author of this poem, but I do know that it rightly sets forth the 
attitude of many brave Christian hearts toward death. 

Do you think that I fear you, Goodman Death? 

Then, sir, you do not know, 
, For your grim white face and your frosty breath, 

And your dark eyes browed with snow, 

Bring naught to me but a signal of love. 

My Father sent you ; He dwelleth above, 
And I am ready to go. ! 

The battle is over, and we have won, 

Perhaps you did not know 
That just tonight the setting sun 

Saw the turning of the foe. 

If you had come in the thick of the fray, 

I might not have wanted to turn away; 
Now I am ready to go. 

Please steady me into your little boat, 

Your arm — yes, thank you, there, 
I think when we are well afloat 



I'll sleep if you do not care. 
If I'm not awake when we reach the shore, 
Tell the Father I stayed till the battle was over, 
And tried to do my share. 

NERVOUSNESS IN RELIGION. 353 

The editor of the Methodist Times, in London, has this strong and teaching 

paragraph on what we might call religious nervous prostration. The editor says : 

It is a sad thing for a man when he becomes acquainted with his nerves. It is 

the worst of calamities when they dominate his religious consciousness. Who can 

ever forget poor Cowper, 

No voice divine the storm allay'd, 
No light propitious shone, 

as in thick darkness he sat motionless and silent. His case is a type of those who 
have suffered under this scourge to the uttermost. Many among us today lose all 
their pith and moment, all that makes Christianity a strong consolation, because they 
are easily agitated, timid, perplexed, and distressed in a moment, and by small things. 
Our fathers described them as having no faith. Bunyan named him Mr. Fearing. 
The state of mind cannot be better understood than by those who have pondered 
Great Heart's description: "I hear that he lay roaring at the Slough of Despond, 
for above a month together, nor durst he, for all he saw several go over before him, 
venture, though they many of them offered to lend him their hand. * * * Well, 
after he had lain at the Slough of Despond a great while, as I have told you, one 
sunshine morning, I do not know how, he ventured, and so got over. But when he 
was over he would scarce believe it." Now that is a case of nerves. 

HOW THE GOSPEL CAME TO ENGLAND. 354- 

The historian Greene in his "History of the English People," has this story of the 
introduction of the Gospel into Great Britain : 

The young deacon Gregory had noted the white bodies, the fair faces, the golden 
hair of some youths who stood bound in the market-place of Rome. "From what 
country do these slaves come?" he asked the traders who brought them. "They are 
English, Angles," the slave-dealers answered. The deacon's pity veiled itself in 
poetic humor. "Not Angles, but angels," said he, "with faces so angel-like." 

"From what country do they come?" 

"They come," said the merchants, "from Deira." 

"De-Ira?" was the reply. "Yea, plucked from God's ire and called to Christ's 
mercy." 

"And what was the name of their king?" 

"Ella," they told him, and Gregory seized the word as a good omen. 

"Alleluia shall be sung there," he cried and passed on, musing how the angels' 
faces should be brought to sing it. 

Years went by, but the memory of those fair youths from Britain was not for- 
gotten; and when Gregory became Bishop of Rome he sent Augustine at the head of 
a band of monks to preach the Gospel to the English people. 

LEADERS WHO GO BEHIND. 355 

Human nature must be a good deal alike in England and in America, for both itt 
church and State we have leaders who would come well under the description given 
by a recent English writer. This gentleman says: 

Undoubtedly we have had leaders who were behind, hanging on to our coat 
tails and. to anything that could keep their weight in contact with our barbaric 
vigor. I remember that in our village we had a curious kind of half-wit, who was 
named Jesse. He was king over all the little children, though he had grown to a 



bearded man; it was his habit to take them out by companies to put salt on the tails 
of birds — he was great upon birds and feathers. I have known other leaders much 
after that sort; but by preference Jesse, when after birds, would lead them through 
the standing corn and through the long grass waiting to be cut. I say he was the 
leader of them, but on every occasion he always came last, and if the children did 
not move quickly enough in front, he would look back over his shoulder and say in 
a raucous voice, "Come on! Come on!" I have often been reminded of Jesse, in 
these latter days, as I have pondered the habits of leaders. 

THE VALUE OF THWACKINGS. 356 

George Meredith, the poet, in "The Shaving of Shagpat," expounds for us the 
value of the thwackings which conje to us all on the journey of life: 

"Lo ! of hundreds who aspire, 

Eighties perish — nineties tire! 
They who bear up in spite of wrecks and wracks, 
Were seasoned by celestial hail of thwacks. 

'Tis the thwacking in this den 

Maketh lions of true men ! 
So are we nerved to break the clinging mesh 
Which tames the noblest efforts of poor flesh." 

THE DISEASE OF SWELLED HEAD. 357 

A certain Claudius Clear, one of the brightest writers among our English cousins 
at the present time, gives two characteristics of the swelled head. He says : 

The disease of Swelled Head may show itself either in the ungenial or in the 
genial way. Sudden success will make one man seclude himself from the vulgar 
herd. He becomes cold, proud, inaccessible. He shuns the haunts of his fellow- 
workers. He repels what he takes to be their rude familiarities. I have known 
famous young men who were only to be approached through a series of rooms. 
You have to deal with somebody in the hall, and then with somebody in another 
room, and still perhaps with another. And if you pass all your trials you might 
be ushered into the august presence. This has been told to me ; it is not an experience 
of my own. No human being ever lived for whom I should face such perils. This 
ungenial form of Swelled Head shows itself also in censoriousness. This is 
particularly the case when the successful man has for long had a very poor opinion 
of his kind, and was hardly in circumstances to say it. From his little temporary 
eminence he launches his darts right and left. Most of the savage and reckless 
things said in this world are the result of Swelled Head. When people are struggling 
they cannot afford to say them. When they find their true place they neither think 
them nor say them, but are disposed to judge their companions in the hard battle 
very charitably. Another ungenial symptom of the Swelled Head is imperiousness. 
This is a world where wills are crossed and thwarted. We get used to it most of 
us, and come to see that it is good for us. But a young man conscious of great 
powers suffers in the process. When he mounts his throne he becomes an Oriental 
despot. One of our authors some years ago had a dangerous illness, during which 
he received surprising proofs of the impression he had made upon the world. As 
soon as he recovered he commenced a number of lawsuits. The instance is quite 
typical. 

SECOND MILE CHRISTIANS. 358 

Dr. G. B. F. Hallock, commenting on the Scripture which commands us to go 

two miles with the man who compels us to go one, says: "Love does not think of 

counting miles. It never says, 'Can I stop here? Have I done my share?' It is a 



characteristic of love to be doing always more than is expected or required. Love 
goes the second mile and counts it not a weary thing to go ten thousand more." 

This is what the religion of the second mile does for men. It brings heart enlist- 
ment. It causes us to serve, not because we must, but because we will, because we 
love and therefore delight to do the will of the one we love. The second-mile Chris- 
tian realizes Christ's love for souls and therefore tries to win men to Him. The 
second-mile Christian realizes Christ's longing for the extension of His kingdom, 
and therefore gladly gives according to his ability for the spread of the Gospel. 
Christ's interests become his interests, Christ's glory his glory, Christ's cause his 
cause, under the sweet, compelling constraint of love. 

The second-mile Christian is a very happy Christian, because he has got beyond 
the region of doubtful debate, of finely drawn questions between right and wrong, 
out into the region of voluntary, glad-hearted, love-prompted service. What Christ 
asks of us, and puts before us as a privilege, in this gospel of the second mile, is 
not the hard-wrought service of a nicely calculated less or more, but that overflow 
of doing which counts duty a delight because the heart is in it. "Go with him 
twain !" 

THE VALUE OF SOULS. 359 

In a recent Revival sermon the preacher said: 

"I shall be content if I can fix in your memories three words only of the text — 
Save, Soul and Death." Taking the second word first, the speaker said: "I wish I 
had the power to make you realize the value of a soul as God sees it. What can 
we put in comparison with it? Gold, silver, precious stones — what are these compared 
with a soul. At the World's Fair at Chicago there was one place where a large crowd 
was always to be seen while the exhibition was Open. They were gazing at a purple 
velvet crown near the apex of which was a brilliant diamond. Oh, there are other 
diamonds far more worthy of attention! The souls of the men and women you 
pass in the street, the souls of those ragged boys and girls — these are jewels infinitely 
more valuable in God's sight than ten thousand diamonds. Oh, the value of souls !" 

THE HIDDEN LIFE. 360 

Commenting on the declaration of the Apostle Paul concerning the life which is 
"hid with Christ in God," Spurgeon thus speaks : 

"Standing by the telegraph wires, one may often hear the mystic wailing and 
singing of the winds among them, like the strains of an aeolian harp; but one knows 
nothing of the message which is flashed along them. Joyous may be the inner 
language of those wires; swift as the lightning; far-reaching, and full of meaning, 
but a stranger intermeddleth not therewith. Fit emblem of the believer's life. Men 
hear our notes of outward sorrow, wrung from us by external conditions; but the 
message of celestial peace; the divine communings of a better land; the swift heart- 
throbs of heaven-born desire, they cannot perceive. The carnal see but the outer 
manhood; but the life hidden with Christ in God, flesh and blood cannot discern." 

HE MADE PLOWS AND YOKES. 361 

Justin Martyr says that in his time the tradition was that our Lord, during his 

early life in the carpenter shop at Nazareth, made wooden plows and yokes. The 

Rev. G. Campbell Morgan, referring to this, makes these remarks about the significance 

of the Voice out of the clouds at his baptism : 

"The eighteen years are over; the tools are laid aside; His feet will no more 
make music as He walks among the rustling shavings. God says : T am pleased.' It 
may have meant that God was pleased with Jesus because in those years He lived 
in the realm of the spiritual rather than the material. But it meant that Jesus had 
never done in that carpenter's shop a piece of work such as we speak of in the closing 
years of the nineteenth century as being 'shoddy work.' •'! am pleased/ God could 



net have been pleased with carpentry that was scamped any more than with blas- 
phemous praise. 'I am pleased,' and every bit of work has on it the light of divine 
truth. When Jesus sent out from that carpenter's shop yokes which the farmers 
would use, they were so fashioned and finished that they would gall no ox. 'Take 
My yoke upon you' gathers force and strength as an illustration from the fidelity of 
the carpenter's shop. When Jesus said: 'Take My yoke,' it was because He knew 
that it would not gall ; it would be finished and perfect. 

"Sometimes we have overshadowed the carpenter's shop with Calvary's cross. 
We have no- right to do it We have come to forget the fidelity of the Son of God 
in the little details of life as we have gazed upon His magnificent triumphs in the 
places of passion and conflict." 

REASON FOR THEIR LOVE. 362 

Just before the Battle of Trafalgar, a mail was sent from the English fleet to 
England, and word was passed that it might be the last chance to write before 
the expected engagement. 

The letters had been collected from the ships, the letter bags were on the vessel 
which was to take them, and she had got some distance on her way, under full sail, 
when Lord Nelson saw a midshipman approach and speak to Pasco, the signal 
officer. 

Pasco uttered an exclamation of disgust, and stamped his foot in evident vexation. 
The admiral called him and asked what was the matter. 

"Nothing that need trouble your lordship," was the deply. 

"You are not the man to lose your temper for nothing," rejoined Nelson. "What 
was it?" 

"Well if you must know, my lord, I will tell you. You see that coxswain?" 
pointing to one of the most active of the petty officers. "We have not a better 
man on the Victory, and the message that put me out was this: I was told that 
he was so busy receiving and getting off his mail bags that he forgot to put his own 
letter to his wife into one of them; and he has just discovered it in his pockeet." 

"Hoist a signal to bring her back!" was Nelson's instant command. "Who 
knows that he may not fall in action tomorrow ? His letter shall go with the rest." 

The dispatch vessel was brought back for that alone. Captain Mahan tells this 
story on the authority of the son of Lieutenant Pasco, who used to say that the 
sailors idolized Nelson. Evidently it was with reason. 

SELF-CONTROL. 363 

Henry Ward Beecher on one occasion related this interesting story concerning 
the remarkable self-control exercised by his father, Dr. Lyman Beecher, and the 
good result which came from it. Mr. Beecher said : 

I remember that once a man came to our house red with wrath. He was boiling 
over with rage. He had, or supposed he had, a grievance to complain of. My father 
listened to him with great attention and perfect quietness until he had got it all out, 
and then he said to him, in a soft and low tone, "Well, I suppose you only want 
what is just and right?" The man said, "Yes," but went on to state the case over 
again. Very gently father said to him, "If you have been misinformed I presume you 
would be perfectly willing to know what the truth is?" He said he would. Then 
father very quietly and gently made a statement of the other side; and when he was 
through the man got up and said, "Forgive me, Doctor. Forgive me." Father had 
beaten him by his quiet, gentle way. I saw it, and it gave me an insight into the 
power of self-control. It was a striking illustration of the passage, "He that ruleth 
his spirit is better than he that taketh a city." 

TRACED BY THUMB-PRINTS. 
The detective bureaus in many cities are now adopting a system, which is also 



being employed in Europe for the detection of criminals. It is based on the dis- 
covery that the markings of the thumb and finger-tips are not exactly alike in any 
number of persons. 

In a recent test case, it was found that in one hundred persons there were no two 
alike. The first use made of the discovery was in India, where, in one of the prisons, 
every prisoner had his thumb and fingers smeared with ink and then pressed on paper, 
on which his name and offence was recorded. The system had been operated about 
two years, when a murder was committed under circumstances that furnished abso- 
lutely no clue to the perpetrator, save the fact that in his search for money the 
criminal had grasped a piece of paper on which his moist thumb and fingers had left 
marks. They were compared with the prison records, and at once identified. The 
guilty man thus indicated was traced and arrested and confessed his guilt. A recent 
case is that of a burglar who happened to place his hand on a freshly-painted window 
sash, leaving an impression which, when compared with the records, furnished the 
clue which has led to his conviction. It is astonishing that there should be so much 
diversity in a matter where one would have expected similarity. The patriarch seems 
to have had a prevision of the fact in his consciousness that God was cognizant of 
all his ways: "Thou settest a print on the heels of my feet." (Job 13:27.) 

SELF-RESPECT. 365 

Every man must hold in honor his own work, if he is to make other people 
respect it. There is a great gulf between egotism and self-respect. Self-respect, in one 
of its important phases, is well illustrated by this little story: 

King Charles II., on a certain occasion, paid a visit to Dr. Busby, the great 
schoolmaster. The doctor is said to have strutted through his school with his hat on 
his head, while his majesty walked complaisantly behind him, with his hat under 
his arm; but when he was taking his leave at the door, the doctor, with great 
humility, addressed him thus, "Sire, your majesty will, I hope, excuse my apparent 
want of respect; but if my boys were to imagine there was a greater man in the 
kingdom than myself, I should never be able to rule them." 

CLEANLINESS ESSENTIAL. 36* 

A new hotel opened on Chatham Square, New York City, some time ago, leaped 
at a bound into popularity. It is conducted by the Salvation Army, and a man 
may obtain a night's lodging there for fifteen cents, or if he desires privacy, he can 
have a room to himself for a quarter. It is seldom that any of the 485 beds it 
contains are unoccupied. The scrupulous cleanliness of the place, the conveniences for 
reading, writing and amusement it offers, have made the hotel a place to be desired 
by the homeless Bowery wanderer. From six o'clock to nine there is a steady stream 
of applicants for tickets, and if an applicant is sober and quiet and has the requisite 
funds, he is admitted. But once received, he is required to take a bath. From the 
appearance of many of the guests, it would be supposed that the offer of the free 
bath would be regarded as a privilege. As a matter of fact, however, the manager 
says that it is objected to. On a recent evening, of the first twenty applicants for 
lodging, twelve went away rather than take a bath. The stipulation is rigorously 
applied, and under no pretext can a man enjoy the privileges of the hotel without 
taking a bath. Dirty men are not excluded, but they must wash' after they are ad- 
mitted. It is the glory of Christ's kingdom that the same rule prevails there. None 
ire too vile to be excluded if they will submit to the cleansing of the Holy Spirit 
after they are received. "And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye 
are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus." (I. Cor. 6:11.) 

THE ENGINEER'S FACE. 367 

A study of faces is usually an interesting pursuit, and especially is this so with 

regard to one prominent in business, social or political circles. When, however, 



one speaks of the face of a man seldom or never heard of, the interest is not quite 
so keenly felt, and yet the expression on such faces is often very significant. Mrs. 
Maud Ballington Booth writes : 

Quite recently we caught a glimpse of a face, and though but for a brief moment, 
ve will not soon forget its apparent weight of anxiety and care. Three hundred souls 
were depending on the owner of that face to conduct them safely to their journey's 
md. He was the engineer on No. 83 engine of the Brooklyn elevated railroad. It was 
a dull morning, and some one remarked the fog was so thick that you could cut it 
with a knife. It was the next morning after the terrible news of the Westfield rail- 
road wreck had caused a shudder throughout the country, and well might any engineer 
sit on the anxious seat when the thought of his responsibility ever and anon flashed 
upon him. Three hundred souls and upward — five cars with from sixty to eighty 
passengers crowded in them, and all anxious to make their several places of business on 
schedule time. One glance of his honest and weather-beaten face sufficed to prove that 
he keenly felt his position. He would be held accountable for the lives of his many 
passengers, as also the property of his employers. At any minute a false movement 
or a moment's inattention on his part might dash his train, with all its precious human 
freight, to the streets, thirty or forty feet below. 

His responsibility was indeed great. So is the responsibility resting on many of 
us. The preacher, the Sunday school teacher, the father, or mother, the employer, and 
many others are engineers responsible for those who depend upon their fidelity and 
wisdom. 

A FLAW IN THE TITLE. 368 

One of the churches in the suburbs of New York has lost the ownership of its 
building. It is built on land which, forty years ago, was sold for only $300. The 
price was paid by the purchaser and the deed duly recorded, but the purchaser, for some 
unknown reason, did not call for it. Taxes accumulated on the land, and after the 
lapse of years the original owner, by paying all the arrears, regained the property. 
No one appeared to dispute his ownership, and he, consequently, regarding the land 
as his own, gave a long lease, which was practically a sale, to the trustees of the 
church. They erected a building upon it in which services continue to be held. Now, 
however, the heirs of the purchaser who neglected to complete title have made a claim 
for the land. They estimate the value of the land at $10,000, and real estate experts 
confirm the estimate. The trustees are advised to resist the claim, but have decided 
not to do so. They intend to buy land and build elsewhere. When they do so, they 
will doubtless be careful that the man from whom they buy a site has a right to sell it. 
One blunder of that kind is enough for any church, though it is not so serious as 
that sometimes made, of building up a church on a wrong foundation. The Apostle 
Paul's example in this matter deserves to be followed by all the churches. "So have 
I striven to preach the Gospel not where Christ was named, lest I should build on 
another man's foundation." (Rom. 15 :20.) 

HEED THE WARNING. 369 

The people of Shelton, Connecticut, had a narrow escape from death, and consid- 
erable damage was done to property from a peculiar enemy. Early one morning a 
huge torrent of water rushed down the hills back of the town, on which are three 
large reservoirs. 

The highest reservoir is the largest, and it is held in by strong granite walls. 
The water flowed beneath the walls, and, with velocity increasing every moment, 
rushed into the reservoir next below, carrying with it logs and trees. The walls 
of the lower reservoir could not bear the strain, and soon collapsed, as did those of the 
third reservoir. The water poured down the hillside in a mighty stream, bearing 
blocks of ice and sweeping everything before it. In one of the houses a woman and 



hei children were asleep. The mother was awakened by a cake of ice bursting in the 
door. She had barely time to escape with her children to the roof before the room 
they had occupied was flooded. One man was awakened by the noise of trees crashing 
against buildings, and ran out through water breast high to the higher ground. Other 
persons had similar narrow escapes, but happily no lives were lost. Several persons 
were saved through a warning given by telephone, which was sent by a man who 
lives near the upper reservoir. He saw the break, and, realizing the danger to the 
people below, he sprang to the telephone, and by frantically ringing awoke his friend 
and warned him, and he warned others. It has been found that the flood was caused 
by rats burrowing in the soil under the walls and making holes, which the flow of 
water enlarged. What a number of people would be saved from eternal destruction 
if they would pay as much attention to the warnings of the Christian ministry, as those 
people paid to the telephone message warning them of the approaching flood! "He 
heard the sound of the trumpet and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him; 
whereas if he had taken warning,, he should have delivered his soul." (Ezek. 33:5.) 

KILLED BY CHAGRIN. 370 

A death, which occurred in a New York hospital last week, is said to have 
been caused by vexation and worry. The patient had once been an exceedingly beau- 
tiful girl, whose good looks won for her popular favor. She had been much praised 
on account of her beauty, and had a large number of friends who admired her. One 
day, recently, while sitting at her work, the kerosene lamp on the table exploded, and 
she was so badly burned on the face and body that she was sent to the hospital. 
The first question she put to her nurse was whether she would be much disfigured. It 
was necessary to tell her that her beauty was entirely destroyed. From that moment 
the girl lost all desire to recover. She fretted and worried and became utterly despond-" 
ent. Her progress toward recovery, which had been encouraging, entirely ceased, 
and she gradually sank and at last died. The cause of death was given by the hospital 
surgeon as burns, but it was really a broken heart. 

What a pity it was that she could not have been led to see that it was still possible 
for her to attain beauty of character which would have been far better for herself and 
all about her, than the beauty of face that she had lost! 

GOODNESS AND IMMORTALITY. . 371 

A story is told of an old Scottish woman who was asked by her minister to 
test her — so great was her love for the Master, so sure was she of his goodness : "But, 
Jenny, woman, suppose at the last, after all, your Lord should let you down to hell?" 
"Ah, weel," she said, "be it as it pleases Him ; He will lose mair than me." Goodness 
has a claim upon God. Goodness is an apologetic for immortality. 

CULTIVATING THE POWER OF OBSERVATION. 37* 

An interesting writer in the British Weekly gives this illuminating paragraph om 
the subject of observation: 

There are multitudes who never observe at all. They have eyes, and they 
cannot help seeing things, but they see them only in their very broadest features. If 
they pass a wall they will know that it is a wall, but it is a chance whether they will 
notice whether the wall is stone or brick. One excellent test is the observation of the 
eyes. If you see a human being you should be able to tell what color his eyes are. 
I know that the color of some eyes is hard to render by one adjective, but the eyes 
are so much the most significant part of the human countenance that if we have not 
marked them, we may be sure we have marked nothing at all. I do not mean that 
we are always to be observing. It is quite reasonable that sometimes we should give 
the eyes a holiday on a walk, and think our thoughts out. But no one will think to 
much purpose or talk to much purpose who has not trained himself to observe on 
occasions, to observe in such a way as that he can describe. One of the most interest- 



ing biographies I ever read is the life of Hogarth, and there is a remarkable passage 
in the book in which Hogarth tells us how he worked. He wanted a short cut to 
painting, and he found one. He went about everywhere with open eyes, endeavoring 
to acquire and retain in his memory perfect ideas of the subjects he meant to draw. 
He says that his path was to "fix forms and characters in my mind, and instead of 
copying the lines try to read the language, and, if possible, find the grammar of the 
art by bringing into one focus the various observations I had made, and then trying by 
my power on the canvas how far my plan enabled me to combine and apply them 
to practice." Sometimes, he owns, "I took the life for correcting the parts I had not 
perfectly enough remembered." But these methods succeeded with him. He saw the 
combinations and facts of ordinary life, its accidents and catastrophes, its phases 
and its gestures. This method could not attain the perfection of art, but Hogarth 
did his work his own way, and he was certainly no failure. The power of observation 
gives immense color to writing and conversation,in fact the true and original observer 
must be interesting. He will exercise his gift upon the most commonplace things with 
the most surprising results. I do not believe the faculty is wanting in anyone, but it 
is a faculty which needs assidious cultivation. 

THE BRIGHTNESS OF EASTER MORNING. 373 

Thomas De Quincey thus describes one of his reveries: "I thought it was Sunday 
morning in May, and that it was Easter Sunday, and yet very early in the morning. 
I said aloud (as I thought) to myself: 'It yet wants much of sunrise, and it is 
Easter Sunday, and that is the day on which they celebrate the first fruits of the 
Resurrection. I will walk abroad, old griefs shall be forgotten, for the air is cool 
and still, and the hills are high and stretch away to Heaven, and the forest glades 
are as quiet as the churchyard ; and with the dew I can wash the fever from my 
brow, and then I shall be unhappy no longer.' " So we also have come to think 
of Easter morning. The world then seems to turn over a new leaf and a brighter 
one. "Christ is risen!" the salutation with which over the vast empire one Russian 
meets another, expresses our own feeling. 

HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF. 374 

The cry that is coming up from the churches that the pulpit in some circles is so 
busy criticising the Bible that it no longer preaches it for the comfort and salvation 
of his people, suggests that a little over a hundred years ago there was an epoch much 
like the present. At that time the poet Cowper addressed his Lord in the following 
lines : 

The infidel has shot his bolts away, 

Till, his exhausted quiver yielding none, 

He gleans the blunted shafts that have recoil'd, 

And aims them at the shield of Truth again. 

The veil is rent, rent too by priestly hands, 

That hides divinity from mortal eyes; 

And all the mysteries to faith proposed, 

Insulted and traduced, are cast aside, 

As useless, to the moles and to the bats. 

They now are deem'd the faithful, and are praised 

Who, constant only in rejecting Thee, 

Deny Thy Godhead with a martyr's zeal, 

And quit their office for their error's sake. 

Blind, and in love with darkness ! yet e'en these 

Worthy, compared with sycophants, who kneel 

Thy name adoring, and then preach Thee man! 



THE ANCHOR WATCH. 375 

"I often recall," says an old sailor, "my first night at sea. A storm had come 
<up, and we had put back under a point of land which broke the wind a little, but 
still the sea had a rake on us, and we were in danger of drifting. I was on the 
anchor watch, and it was my duty to give warning in case the ship should drag anchor. 
It was a long night to me. I was very anxious whether I should know if the ship 
really did drift. How could I tell? I found that, going forward and placing my hand 
on the chain, I could tell by feeling of it whether the anchor was dragging or not • and 
how often I went forward and placed my hand on that chain ! 

"And very often since then I have wondered whether I am drifting away from 
God, and then I go away and pray. Sometimes during that long, stormy night I 
would be startled by a rumbling sound, and I would put my hand on the chain and 
find it was not the anchor dragging, but only the chain grating against the rocks 
on the bottom. The anchor was still firm. And sometimes now, in temptation and 
trial, I become afraid, and upon praying I find that away down deep in my heart I do 
love God, and my hope is in His salvation. And I want just to say a word to 
you boys: 'Boys, keep an anchor watch, lest before you are aware you may be 
upon the rocks.' " 

BETTER THINGS THAN MONEY. 376 

Senator Hoar in an address to the students of Armour Institute, Chicago, said: 
"You are not in this world to make money. Far higher is it to make the man than 
to make money." He has himself furnished a notable illustration of what he said : 

A writer in The Pilgrim says, "No other senator of Mr. Hoar's standing lives so 
simply as he." Mr. Hoar has said that all the income producing property he ever 
had yields less than $1,800 a year and that he has been growing a little poorer year by 
year during his long service in congress. He has lately purchased a house of a few 
rooms in Washington with money borrowed from friends, because, he says, after 
thirty years' boarding he does not think it safe for himself and his wife to be exposed 
to the infirmities of age where, if either should be ill, strangers would be called on to 
minister to them. Yet, while Senator Hoar has arrived at his seventy-seventh year 
without any money to show for his labor, few men in this country have greater 
influence or a nobler record of unselfish patriotism and integrity. He proves again 
the truth of what was said by the wisest of men, "A man's life consisteth not in the 
abundance of the things he possesseth." 

A WAITING BRIDE. 377 

A young lady in a small town in New Jersey is having a trying experience. 
Some three years ago, her brother was making a tour on the Pacific coast. She 
corresponded with him during his travels, and one day, while staying with an old 
friend in Los Angeles, Cal., a letter from the sister was delivered to him. In it was 
a photograph which his sister had just received from a photographer. He showed 
it to his host, who became deeply interested in it, and asked many questions about 
the character and disposition of the young lady. The guest was enthusiastic in praise 
of his sister, and eventually a correspondence was begun, which has continued ever 
since. It grew more and more cordial, until it resulted in an engagement of marriage. 
The young man, however, was prevented by pressing business from coming east to 
be married, so he pleaded with the girl to go to California for the ceremony. Ulti- 
mately he won her consent. A day was fixed on which she was to start on her journey. 
He promised to send before that day a check in payment of her expenses. The bridal 
trousseau was packed, and on the morning of the day appointed she sat on her 
trunk awaiting the coming of the letter-carrier, who, she felt sure, would bring the 
expected letter. But no letter or check came, and her disappointment was acute. 
Her friends have lost faith in the young man, but the expectant bride still believes 



that the delay has been accidental, and will be short. It may be hoped that her confi- 
dence will be justified. 

This young woman sets an example to some Christians who, in spite of the 
promises of Him who never fails, have ceased to expect the coming of their Lord. 
St. Peter foretold such who would say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For 
since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning." 

SEEING WITHOUT EYES. 378 

A French journal published a story that is received among scientists with general 
incredulity, but which the journal insists is strictly true. It is that a system has been 
discovered by which a blind man, or one whose eyes are covered, can actually see. 
It appears that Professor Steins, studying the principle of the telephone, conceived 
the idea that a power which could bring sounds from long distances to the ear, 
might also bring the sight of objects to the brain without the use of the eye. His 
theory is that it is not the eye that sees, but the brain. The eye is simply the medium 
of sight. Proceeding from that basis, he argued that if the image of any object could 
be transmitted to the brain directly, without the use of the optic nerve, the image 
would be seen. The professor invented an apparatus which he places on the temples 
of a blindfolded person, and immediately that person sees any object brought near to 
him. An experiment made on Dr. Caze, one of the professor's colleagues, is described 
by the French journal. It states that Dr. Caze was blindfolded, and taken into a dark 
room. The apparatus was put on his head and he gradually became conscious of 
every article in the room, and stated accurately the number of fingers held up before 
him. It is an astonishing story, which, if it proves true, will bring joy and gladness 
to thousands of afflicted hearts. We may be thankful, however, that even if it should 
prove that it is impossible for a person without eyes to see natural objects, it is 
always possible for him to see spiritual truth which is sometimes hidden from persons 
blessed with natural sight. Paul expresses this well when he says. "The natural man 
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, because they 
are spiritually discerned." 

AFTER A NIGHT OF PRAYER. 370 

Dr. Torrey tells a story of how, when once acting as chairman at Tremont 
Temple, Boston, he found a lady's name on the programme as one of the speakers. 
He did not care for the preaching of women, and, as the lady who was to speak 
had but shortly before been converted, he thought her address would be sure to bring 
disaster to the meeting. Having called on her when her turn came, he buried his face 
in his hands; but, as she went on speaking, he felt such an unwonted power with 
her words that he ventured to look up. To his surprise the meeting was moved 
as no other had moved it, and many were in tears. On inquiring of her afterwards as 
to her preparation for the sen-ice. he found that she had been so much afraid of 
addressing such a great meeting that she had spent many of the hours of the previous 
night in prayer before God. 

SAVED BY GRACE. 380 

A gentleman passing through the narrow alley of the city heard a woman's voice 
in a cheering song. The words of the refrain upon which she lingered seemed 
strangely out of place in that environment. She sang : 

"And I shall see him face to face, 
And tell the story 'Saved by grace !' " 

looking up toward the place from whence the song came, he saw a poor old serving 
woman down on her knees scrubbing. The sight stirred his heart, and, in a moment, 
the sweet song took a depth and beauty of meaning and a charm unimagined before. 
That poor scrub-woman, in her weary toil, was a "daughter of the King," and heir of 



sternal glory, for a short time away from home, a pilgrim and stranger in the earth. 
What she sang, as she looked up into the face of the Unseen, was sober truth: "I 
shall see him face to face!" The drudgery shall cease. The rags shall drop off from 
the old body. The prisoned spirit shall be set free. The dust and smoke and din 
of this weary world shall vanish out of sight. New scenes shall open to the unveiled 
eyes, even a world which needs no light of moon or star or sun, for "the Lamb is the 
light thereof." 

It is worth the while to tarry and toil and suffer here for a little while, to live 
for Jesus in a world that "lieth in the wicked one," with the faith and hope of that 
better time in the heart, when we shall assuredly 

"See him face to face, 

And tell the story, 'Saved by grace !' " 

GIVING OUT OF ONE'S POVERTY. 381 

We are always ready to believe that if we had an abundance, we should be ready 
to give out of that abundance, but we are not always ready to share what we have 
with the Lord. It is much easier to be generous with what we have not, than 
with what we have! A good missionary illustrates this truth in this way: 

"One man asked another: Tf you had a hundred sheep, would you give fifty of 
thorn for God's work?' 'Yes, I would.' 'Would you do the same if you had a hundred 
cows?' 'Yes, I would.' 'Would you do the same if you had a hundred horses?' 
*Yes, I would.' 'If you had two pigs, would you give one of them to God's cause?' 
"No, I wouldn't ; and you have no right to ask me when you know I have two pigs.' " 

It is a great deal easier to say you would give fifty horses to the Lord when you 
haven't any, than to say you'll give one pig when it is half your present possession. 
Yet it is the giving out of one's poverty that counts more than the prospective giving 
out of one's abundance. 

HUNGRY FOR LOVE. 382 

One well says that the world is hungry for love. It is not hungry for great 
poets, great soldiers, great inventors, but is longing for great lovers. A great lover 
is simply a soul set free enough from selfishness to live in other lives, and free enough 
from reserve and cowardice to tell others how he loves them. For it is not enough 
to love and not tell it. As Miss Woolson has written : 

'They love us, and we know it; this suffices 

For reason's share. 
Why should they pause to give that love expression 

With gentle care? 
Why should they pause? But still our hearts are aching 

With all the gnawing pain 
Of hungry love that longs to hear the music, 

And longs and longs in vain." 

LOVE, THE HOME OF THE SOUL. 383 

It has often been said that heaven is the "home of the soul," but Sir Walter 
Scott sang, "Love is heaven, and heaven is love." One of the most beautiful stories 
ever told is that related of Wendell Phillips : 

He was passionately devoted to his invalid wife, and one day, after he had 
lectured, his friends urged him not to return to Boston that night. "The last train 
has left/' they said, "and you will be obliged to take a carriage. It will mean twelve 
miles of cold riding through the sleet." "Ah, yes," he replied, "but at the end of 
them I shall find Annie Phillips." 



TEETOTALISM. 384 

A school inspector who was paying a visit of inspection to a large English 
school found a teacher exercising a class in definitions. One interrogation put to 
them seemed for a moment to stump them entirely. The question was: "What is 
teetotalism?" 

At last one tiny girl, whose pinched face and shabby clothes bespoke hard times 
at home, put up her hand and cried out : "I know, teacher !" 

Both teacher and visitor felt lumps rise in their throats as the answer came, in 
the thin, piping treble: "Teetotalism means bread and butter." 

With tears welling in her eyes, the teacher said: "You must explain that." 

And the small damsel promptly replied: 

"Because when father's teetotal we get bread and butter, and when he is not we 
have to go without." 

PLEADING THE PROMISES. 385 

Dr. Wayland Hoyt once asked Mr. Spurgeon, who had been telling him some of 

the wonders that prayer had wrought for him, how he prayed. The great preacher 

answered, "I take a promise and plead it." 

Dr. Hoyt, in relating this conversation, says by way of comment: "What infinite 

zest and enthusiasm it would add to the Bible reading of many if they would thus 

appropriate the promises of God as they read !" 

FAMILY WORSHIP. 386 

Governor Mickey, of Nebraska, speaking before the Methodist Social Union, in 
Chicago, said some very earnest things about religion in the home. In the course of 
his remarks he said : 

. "My observation is that in recent years there has been a gradual abandonment of 
family worship in many instances and that religion, as a part of the family instruc- 
tion, is neglected. In such homes the idea prevails that religion is solely an adjunct 
of Sunday and that its exemplification is properly confined to the church service and 
the Sabbath school. Christian people should be aroused to this tendency of the times. 
The home that is not a praying home falls far short of what a true home should be 
and its influences do not make for the highest ideals of life. The family altar is 
an impregnable defense against the onslaughts of sin and iniquity and any influence 
that tends to destroy it is a thrust at the very life of the church itself. I trust that 
a reaction will quickly follow and that every church communicant will be brought to 
realize that the family altar is religion's surest defense and the nation's safeguard 
as well." 

CHRIST A MIRROR OF HEAVENLY THINGS. 387 

There is in Rome an elegant fresco by Guildo, "The Aurora." It covers a lofty 
ceiling. Looking up at it from the pavement your neck grows stiff, your head 
dizzy, and the figures indistinct. You soon turn away. The owner of the palace 
has placed a broad mirror near the floor. You may now sit down before it as at a 
table, and at your leisure look into the mirror and enjoy the fresco that is above 
you. There is no more weariness, no more indistinctness, no more dizziness. 
So Paul says, we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 

CRUELTY TO BIRDS. 388 

The celebrated Russian novelist, Turgenieff, tells a most touching little incident 

which occurred during -his early boyhood, which awakened in him sentiments that 

'lave colored all his writings : 

When he was a lad of ten, his father took him out one day bircr-shooting. As 

they tramped across the brown stubble a golden pheasant rose with a low whirr 

from the ground at his feet, and, with the joy of a sportsman, he raised his gun and 



fired, wild with excitement, when the creature fell fluttering at his side. Life was 
ebbing fast, but the instinct of the mother was stronger than death itself, and with 
a feeble flutter of her wings the mother bird reached the nest where her young 
brood were huddled, unconscious of danger. Then, with such a look of pleading 
and reproach that his heart stood still at the ruin he had wrought — and never to 
his dying day did he forget the feeling of guilt which came to him at that moment — 
the little brown head toppled over, and only the dead body of the mother shielded her 
nestlings. 

"Father, father!" he cried, "what have I done?" as he turned his horror-stricken 
face to his father. 

But not to his father's eye had this little tragedy been enacted, and he said: 
"Well done, my son; that was well done for your first shot. You will soon be a 
fine sportsman." 

"Never, father; never again shall I destroy any living creature. If that is sport, 
I will have none of it. Life is more beautiful to me than death, and since I cannot 
give life, I will not take it." 

EVERYBODY UNDERSTANDS A SMILE. 389 

A traveler tells this pretty story, and comments on it with most helpful philosophy : 
Two children — one French, one Italian — met at a steamboat landing where 
passengers were waiting. Each held his mother by the hand, at the same time 
looking with curiosity and interest into the other's face. Presently one of them began 
smiling radiantly. The other responded and put out a dimpled hand to smooth 
the cheek leaned towards him. The two babies were friends at once. 

"Everybody understands a smile," said a lady who was looking on, and the senti- 
ment was responded to by more than one bystander. 

We often speak of being misunderstood even by our nearest and dearest; but 
do we smile enough? Each soul speaks its own language, a speech foreign to every 
other; but smiles full of goodwill, of self-forgetfulness, of serenity, are a universal 
language that explains, harmonizes, soothes, communicates, draws hearts together. 
W T hy should we not smile more? Thus we should become better acquainted with each 
other; the dim corners of the heart would be illumined, warmed and blessed; the timid 
would be reassured, the weak strengthened as a plant with sunshine. Then, however 
obscure the language of any life, there would be the joy, perhaps sweeter than any 
other, of being understood. 

PERSISTENCE REWARDED. 39» 

A man is now on his way to this country from Austria who has been twice 
turned back by the immigration commissioners. Early last year he came, but on 
examination it was found that the thumb of his left hand had been amputated. As it 
was thought he might become a public charge, he was sent back to his home. In 
November last, he presented himself again, having been in correspondence with a 
fellow-countryman resident in Philadelphia, who was able to give a guarantee that 
the country would not incur expense by admitting him. Through some informality, 
the commissioners rejected the guarantee, and again sent the would-be citizen back 
to Austria. Arrangements have now been made through the Austrian consul for the 
acceptance of a bond of indemnity, and the immigrant is now, for the third time, on his 
way hither. Most men would have been too much discouraged by a double rejection 
to have made a third attempt, but this man persists, and is now likely to succeed. 

What a blessed thing it would be for multitudes of men if they were as determined 
to enter the kingdom of Christ, for in that case persistence is sure of success. 

STRIVING TO CATCH THE MASTER'S SPIRIT. 391 

History tells of a young paint-grinder in the studio of Italy's greatest master, 

who developed striking evidences of artistic skilL When an enemy of the great 



teacher came to the boy and urged him to found a school of his own, saying that 
wealth and honors and invitations to kings' palaces might be his, the youth answered, 
in effect, "I am not ambitious to found a school or dwell in a palace, but I am 
ambitious to catch Raphael's spirit and reproduce in myself his ideals." 

THE SECRET OF HAPPINESS. 392 

General Ballington Booth, the founder and president of the Volunteers of 

America, recently said, "I have met thousands of persons individually in my public 

career, and the happiest I have met have not been the hard talkers, or the ha*rd 

thinkers, but the hard workers." 

NUGGETS OF GOLD. 393 

Margaret Sangster says: In the days of the Forty-Niners the old California 
prospectors sent home nuggets of gold as they found them in the mines. A nugget 
might be large or small, but it contained some yellow ore that was pure and worth 
owning. I wish we might each of us search in the mines of knowledge for a nugget 
daily of pure gold. He or she who learns by heart a Scripture text, just one, each day, 
will have a great store of golden Bible nuggets laid up in memory. The one who 
reads a little in some good author every day, will be equally the gainer in mental 
wealth. 

THE FICKLE MULTITUDE. 394 

The Rev. Frank De Witt Talmage has this paragraph in a Palm Sunday sermon: 
The Duke of Wellington well understood the fickleness of popular applause. Long 
after the conqueror of Napoleon had regained His popularity, and had become the most 
beloved subject of the Victorian Empire, he always kept the fence around his city home 
broken down, as an object lesson, to recall the time when the London mob battered 
it down, to show their disgust at one of his official acts as Prime Minister. William 
E. Gladstone was again and again execrated in the streets of the British capital, 
through which Tils dead body was afterward carried to sleep its last sleep among the 
honored dead of Westminster, the Prince of Wales, now King, being among the pall- 
bearers. Joan of Arc, who led the French armies to victory, was deserted by her 
followers, who came to believe her a witch and a devil. The same tongue which once 
charmed the Roman assemblies, was afterward cut out from the mouth of Cicero by 
the mobs, and nailed up in the Roman Forum, with the epitaph, "Thou fool, wag no 
more !" Ah, we do not have to stand among the vociferating multitudes of Palm Sun- 
day to hear and see the fickleness of the human race. We can see everywhere the 
human idols being shattered. The same voices that are ready to cry to us, "Put him 
upon a throne," are the voices which to-morrow will call, "Lead him away to exe- 
cution." 

ENGINEERS WHO FAIL. 395 

An eminent railroad authority, speaking recently to young men who are studying 
to become engineers, dwelt on the qualities necessary for success. He said: "A man 
who has any disposition to indulge in the use of alcoholic stimulants, or who has 
trouble of any sort to disturb his mind, should never undertake service as a locomotive 
engineer. It is when the engineer is not exactly himself, whatever may be the cause, 
that the vital test seems to come nearly every time. Sometimes it is a great wreck 
which results, because the mind of the engineer is not equal to the occasion. I have 
never known one engineer of gloomy and melancholy disposition to grow old in the 
service of engineer. Such men are either killed or discharged from the service before 
they have worked any great length of time. I have known several men who had domes- 
tic trouble of various kinds, and of them I do not remember one who ran an engine 
for more than five years. It seems that they cannot concentrate their minds or can- 
not keep them concentrated upon what they are doing. I have known some of them 



to forget, after getting the green, whether they had a green block or a white block, 
and to run at a speed beyond their control straight into the rear of another train." 
Paul in his last letter to Timothy utters a similar warning to those who would 
serve Christ: "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; 
that he may please him who hath chosen him." 

TYPHOID FEVER AND LIQUOR SALOONS. 396 

Mr. John G. Woolley seizes on the rigid attempt to crush out typhoid fever at 
Ithaca, New York, the seat of Cornell University, to show the inconsistency of the 
public which is wise enough to take the proper measures to protect citizens from 
typhoid fever while it leaves them exposed to the destroying influence of saloons. Mr. 
Woolley says : 

"The Board of Health of Ithaca, New York, in order to check the spread of typhoid 
fever there, has passed a resolution declaring it a crime to use unboiled city water 
for domestic purposes. We are just as much opposed to typhoid fever as anybody, 
but in the interest of consistency and common sense we rise to say: You can't make 
men healthy by law. The people have always used raw water, and they always will. 
If Ithaca does not furnish it, other cities will, and she will lose her boom in the med- 
ical and undertaking lines, and grass will grow in her cemetery drives. Power of 
resistance to typhoid cannot be cultivated in the people without permitting them to 
be exposed to it. It is an infringement of personal liberty to forbid a man to drink 
dirty water, if he likes it. Ithacans will become sneaks under this sumptuary legis- 
lation. They will crawl down into the creek bottom and drink twice as much as they 
would if they could just step up to the spiggot and take a drink when they wanted it. 
They will drink from the sewers. They will carry bottles of city water. They will 
- club together and go to great excess. They will swear in court that they didn't know 
it was water. They will take typhoid fever into politics. The true principle is regu- 
lation. There would be a certain value in having the water boiled for children after 
11 o'clock at night, on Sundays and election days. Delirious typhoid patients ought 
£0 be told, No ! you have had enough, but prohibition does not prohibit." 

STRUGGLE ESSENTIAL TO STRENGTH. 397 

In his eulogy of Abraham Lincoln, at the Lincoln Dinner, in New York city, Ex- 
Governor Black uttered this virile paragraph: 

"It is not wealth that counts in the making of the world, but character. And 
character is best formed amid those surroundings where every waking hour is filled 
with struggle, where no flag of truce is ever sent, and only darkness stays the con- 
flict. Give me the hut that is small enough, the poverty that is deep enough, and the 
love that is great enough, and I will raise from them the best there is in human char- 
acter." 

A RECORD OF HEROISM. 398 

Dr. S. Weir Mitchell employed a Clippings Bureau to furnish him for a year 
-all newspaper accounts of individual acts of heroism for the sake of others. The 
flood of material was such that he stopped it at ten months. Even then it was a good 
while before he succeeded in reducing it to order. The occasion for this somewhat 
unusual compilation was a discussion which arose among some friends as to whether 
,or not the spirit of altruism is gaining ground in the modern world. The result of it 
as reported in the Century is wholly cheering. 

Eliminating first the rescues at the hands of soldiers and the coast-guards, and 
all actions of men in groups or organized companies, there remained as the result 
.of a- manifestly defective collection a record for ten months of eleven hundred and 
sixty-three separate acts of heroism in the face of danger to others. After still fur- 
ther culling out the risks taken by mothers for their children, there were more than 
seven hundred instances, or nearly an average of three a day. 



A SOLID FOUNDATION. 399 

A great engineer who has since died once had in charge the erection of a sus- 
pension bridge over the Hudson river. Before he began to build the towers he made 
a most minute inspection of the rocks on which they were to stand. He not only 
examined them carefully, but sent divers down to see if there were any cavities or 
washouts under them. Their reports would have satisfied any engineer; but this 
man was not content. He sent for a diamond drill and took a core out of the rocks 
a hundred feet long. The work took twelve days, and the result confirmed the pre- 
vious conclusion, that the rocks were absolutely solid. Then, and not till then, he 
began to erect the towers. When a man is building his life and work for eternity he 
should take care that he has a sound foundation, and that he has it in Christ. 

CHRISTIAN FREEDOM. 400 

An English editor illustrates the freedom which comes in Christ Jesus, by this 
reference to Bunyan. He says : 

When Christian and Pliable fell into the Slough of Despond, the free man was 
Christian, who struggled out on the side farthest from his own house and toward 
the celestial city; the man unfree was Pliable, who could not turn any way but back. 
Freedom includes confidence in the road and its forward going. Christian was the 
conservative man, too, for he was determined to preserve his new life by going for- 
ward. And to be free in mind, in time of new conditions, is to believe in the possi- 
bility of construction for aid to the old life out of the new materials. It is to be 
released from distrust in the future, and set at large in the liberty of hope, sure that 
constructive helpfulness is something to which the future belongs. Thus, to gather it 
all up in a single point, to be free in mind is to be free to act out the conservative 
Impulse of construction for aid to the precious Christian life; free, I mean, on all 
sides,— free by the releasing of one's powers, free by the largeness of faith in God, 
and free by deliverance from fear of other men, — free in all these ways to be building 
up out of new materials means for help to the Christian people in the living of 
their holy life. 

A WORLD OF TRIAL. 401 

Here is a story as beautiful as it is pathetic and full of instruction. It is of a vig- 
orous little lad scarce five years old. 

His mother says he "wakes with a lecture and goes to bed with a spanking;" so 
we may be quite sure he is not merely a stray angel but must be pretty much a boy. 
He had been tucked in for the night after his usual chastisement, not very hard but 
certainly monitory, when he unbosomed himself to his anxious mother: "Mamma, I 
know it is good for me to be spanked. I always feel better for being spanked after 
I have been naughty. But, mamma, it is a hard world, ain't it?" The dear little chap! 
already wrestling with the mystery of sin and suffering. 

A GOOD RECOMMENDATION. 402 

A traveller sitting in the station of a great railway line, noticed a young couple 
evidently just married, and quite as evidently they were headed for their new home 
in one of the Western states. 

The groom had with him a wolfskin overcoat, and the bride a bundle of quilted 
bedding. They were just such young people as have already gone by the thousand to 
settle on prairies and among mountains. Their hands were hard, and their faces, even 
young as they were, showed familiarity with the cares of a laborious life. The young 
man excused himself and went out for a walk; whereupon the young woman reached 
into the pocket of the wolfskin coat and took out for her reading a well-worn, 
morocco-bound Bible. 

What a recommendation that Bible was! The traveller would have trusted that 
couple anywhere. 



ONE WOMAN'S DREAM. 403 

The Rev. F. B. Price, a missionary in Burmah, writes home this story: 

A missionary, whose busy life was suddenly arrested by an illness that brought 
her to the parting of the worlds, had visions of service and influence far beyond the 
common bounds. 

"Oh," said she, "I never thought before of every woman putting her hand under 
the hand of every other woman! Had you ever thought of it that way?" And her 
pale face shone with smiles of joy, as she saw the possibility of womanhood, the world 
over, thus enlisted in mutual helpfulness. 

The figure is worth pondering. For the open palm extended in greeting is also 
the gesture of assistance and relief. It is the sign of friendship and love, of invitation 
and good cheer. It expresses generosity, service, consecration, uplift. It is like the 
hand of Him who welcomed little children, and who said to weary, sin-cursed multi- 
tudes : "Come unto me, and I will give you rest !" 

What if that dream were realized, and every woman who knows His love would 
reach her hand of sympathy and help toward every other woman for whom He died ! 

"HELP A FELLOW!" 404 

I have seen a story of a little lad at a seaside resort whose mother commanded 
him not to go down to the beach that afternoon, but to stay on the lawn, until she 
should come out, when they would go for a walk. 

The afternoon waned, but the mother never came out. The little fellow's play- 
mates came along and called him to come and wade, but he shook his head. 

"He could see the glistening ocean from the veranda, and it never seemed more 
attractive nor the cottage more utterly dull. Presently he walked slowly down to 
the gate and began to toy with the latch. Then, with firm-set lips and hands clasped 
tight behind him, he as slowly returned to the veranda. 

"Again, yielding to temptation, he went to the gate. This time he opened it a 
little, but instead of passing through, he closed it sharply, and once more made his 
way back to the veranda. 

"How hot and lonely and stupid it was there, and what a merry time the other 
children were having on the cool, moist sand at the edge of the frothing wavelets ! 
He bore it as long as he could, and then, running swiftly down the gravel path, opened 
the gate and scampered off to join his playmates. 

"It was tea-time when he returned, and his mother met him with uplifted finger 
and reproving look. 

" 'Ah, Rodney, Rodney,' she said, 'you have disobeyed me ! You have been at 
the beach in spite of what I told you !' 

"Rodney's flaming cheeks and downcast eyes and silent tongue constituted a suffi- 
cient confession, and his mother went on : 

" 'Now I want to tell you, Rodney, that I was watching you all the time. I saw 
you go to the gate twice and come back, and then go through it the third time/ 

"Rodney suddenly found his tongue, and looking up at his mother with a world 
of meaning in his big brown eyes, said : 

"'You were watching me the whole time?' 

" 'Yes/ answered the mother, wondering what was in the little mind. 

" 'And you saw me go down to the gate and come back again ?' he continued. 

" T did/ was her response, still more perplexed. 

"'Then, mother,' he asked bravely, although the little lips trembled, 'why didn't 
you tap on^the window and help a fellow?"' 

Even so. The infinite pathos of it ! The baby conscience struggling for the right, 
and only needing the quiet tap of the mother's finger -upon the window-pane to nerve 
it for victory ! 



A DARING RESCUE. 405 

A woman and her child were rescued from a burning house in New York city 
by a brave policeman in a manner which required great courage. The policeman was 
on his way to report at the station when he saw an excited crowd gazing at the upper 
floor of ;i house. On the fire-escape outside a window on the third floor, a woman 
and a child were standing, while smoke poured from the windows. The crowd 
thought the woman was about to jump and called to her to wait for the firemen; but 
the woman was hysterical, and her danger was increasing every moment. Policeman 
Willence tried to make his way to her through the burning building, but the fire was 
so fierce and the smoke so dense that he was driven back. He then tried the house 
next door, but could not gain admittance. Two doors away he entered and made his 
way to the roof, thence going over roofs to that of the burning building. It was 
four stories high. He descended to the third story fire-escape, where the woman and 
child were. Finding that the woman had fainted, he carried the child to the roof, 
and then returned and carried up the woman, then a lifeless burden. The crowd saw 
his brave act, and when the woman and child were both safe on the roof they gave 
a mighty cheer. 

The brave policeman deserved the cheers, but how many forget to give their 
admiration and love to Him who laid down his life upon the cross to save them 
from ruin. 

TO DIE FOR A TOTEM. 406 

There has been trouble among the Indians in Southeastern Alaska. Some time 
ago they decided to hold a potlatch at Sitka. They belonged to the great Frog Tribe, 
and deputations from groups of that tribe were soon on their way to Sitka from 
various districts. Among them was a party from Wrangel. They came down in highly 
decorated canoes, and were dressed in all their glory. 

On the way to Sitka a member of the party was taken ill and died. By inexpli- 
cable reasoning the Sitka Indians were held responsible for his death, and a demand 
was made upon them for one hundred and fifty blankets as an indemnity. As they 
refused to pay, their totem was seized and carried off. An expert carver was employed 
to make a new totem. After weeks of work it was completed, and a wonderful work 
it was. Ten feet long, six feet wide, with lips of brass, and enormous glass eyes, it 
was gay with the colors of the rainbow. It was set upon a high pole, but not without 
protest. It is contended that it is a counterfeit totem, and that the Sitka people have 
no right to a totem until they have paid their indemnity. So the excitement has 
grown, and now a threat is made to destroy the symbol, and a number of men are 
determined to destroy it, while others, armed with rifles, stand guard over it night 
and day. To civilized people it seems incomprehensible that men should attach so 
much importance to a grotesque symbol. 

What a change it would work in the lives of these Indians if they could really 
understand the symbolism of the Cross, and cherish that which it implies ! Paul 
had the real significance when he wrote to the Gallatians, "God forbid that I should 
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified 
unto me, and I unto the world." 

EXPLORING THE HEAVENLY WORLD. 407 

A wonderful story of Antartic exploration comes from Auckland, New Zealand. 
The British steamer Morning has returned to that port from its voyage southward, 
where it went to carry supplies to the explorers who are trying to discover the secret 
of the South Pole. It found them at McMurdo Bay, Victoria Land, which is much 
farther south than was expected. They reported that their vessel, the Discovery 
entered the ice-pack on Dec 23, 1901. By the following March the vessel was frozen 
in, and the crew landed and prepared winter quarters. The temperature was then 



sixty-two degrees below zero. In September, which is the closing of the winter in 
those latitudes, sledge journeys were organized. One of these, conducted by Capt 
Scott and Dr. Wilson, reaching the eighty-second degree of south latitude, which is 
nearly three hundred miles farther south than any explorer has ever been. They saw 
from that point isolated peaks twelve thousand feet high, and high ranges of mountains 
stretching far away to the horizon. As their dogs had died on the journey, they 
were obliged to return, dragging their sledge themselves. The arrival of the relief 
vessel was timely, as provisions were running short. Ample supplies were left with 
the explorers, who expect to resume their journeys by sledge in September next. 

If men were as much in earnest in their endeavors to learn all about the heavenly 
world as the explorers are to find out all about this world, how much truer and 
holier our lives would be ! 

HOLY DOGGEDNESS. 408 

The Rev. Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst declares that more than any other thing, the 
nature of a man's power, the criterion of the amount of effect that he will likely pro- 
duce in the world, will be not the brilliancy or the impetuosity with which he takes 
hold, but the holy doggedness with which he hangs on after he has taken hold. Dr. 
Parkhurst continues : 

Every once in a while I am told that such and such a brilliant young man or 
woman has just come into our congregation, and that he or she will be likely to prove 
a great acquisition. I confess that it is a bait at which I nibble less than I used to do. 
If I want a light to read by, I had rather have a good long tallow dip than a streak 
of lightning. A very small river will carry a great deal of water to the sea if it keeps 
running. 

Patient continuance in well doing is the art of great living — it makes the man him- 
self great; it ennobles the world he lives in; it leaves behind a bequest that can never 
be diverted to unintended purposes, and it puts a man distinctly upon the track of 
having fulfilled to him the promised award of the Lord : "Well done, good and faithful 
servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many 
things ; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 

A MOTHER'S INFLUENCE. 409 

A Christian gentlewoman who was travelling took a seat in a railway train next to 
a man, and in his conversation learned that he had just become a Christian. He said 
that it was through a letter written him by his mother. My friend asked to see the 
letter which would mean the conversion of a man, and he answered, "It is not so much 
in what she says, but it is the way she signs her name; you can see that her hand 
has trembled, and when I read it I said, if she dies no one else will ever ask me to 
be a Christian again." 

ONE FAMILY IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH. 410 

A young preacher recently called on an eminent divine, and in the course of 
conversation asked him how many children he had. "Four, sir," was the reply. At 
the supper table, the visitor perceived two beautiful children seated by the side of 
the mother. Turning to his host, he said, "I thought you had four children, sir; 
where are the other two?" Lifting his eyes, the holy man of God pointed upwards, 
while a sweet smile broke over his countenance. "They are in heaven," he repeated, 
slowly and calmly ; "yet my children still ; not dead, but gone before." 

GIVING GOD THE BEST. 4" 

Dr. Amos R. Wells tells the following story, and adds a striking bit of comment : 

There was once a poor Hindu mother who had two boy babies, twins, and one of 

them was blind. She thought the gods must be angry with her, or the child would not 

be blind, and planned to propitiate them. One day' she was seen with but a single 



child in her arms, and he was blind. She had thrown the other, as an offering, into 
the Ganges. "Yes, of course," she said, when questioned, "I gave the best." 

How this untaught faithfulness of the poor heathen mother puts us all to shame ! 
We may be sure that God gives His best to us, without reserve of anything for His 
private enjoyment; that is, He always gives us the best we are capable of receiving. 
It may fairly be questioned whether we give to Him at all until we give eagerly, and 
until we ask honestly, not "How little can I give, and preserve my self-respect and the 
respect of others?" but "How much is it my happy privilege to give?" 

THE WAY CHARACTER IS BUILT. 412 

Dr. G. B. F. Hallock draws this illustration from Mammoth Cave: 
There was once a stupendous apartment without supports in the great cave of 
Kentucky. But following the upheaval that formed the cave, water began to percolate 
through the dome, and fall drop by drop to the floor. An invisible sediment of car- 
bonate of lime was left by each drop on the ceiling, and where it fell on the floor. 
Nature's workmen had begun to pillar that mighty dome. By day and by night, with- 
out let or hindrance, the work went on. At last the stalactite began to hang from 
the vault, and the stalagmite to rise from the floor, and long before the eyes of man 
looked into that little world, the pillars from above, and the pillars from below had 
met, and a thousand columns supported the overhanging roof, until now a railway 
might roll its carriage over the place, and it would not yield an inch. 

Thus character is always stalactite in its formation, begun in a moment, but run- 
ning on through a lifetime and coming to an absolute permanence. Never a drop of 
truth percolates through the heart that it does not leave a sediment of strength. 
Never a thought, word, or deed that does not leave some eternal effect. 

SAVING THE FRAGMENTS. 413; 

Dr. David James Burrell, in a sermon on "The End of Time," gives these inter- 
esting facts showing the value of fragments of time: 

One of the valuable secrets of success is knowing how to economize the fragments 
of time. An hour seems a little matter, but you can read twenty quarto pages in an 
hour, and an hour a day for four years would carry you through the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica. Ten minutes are hardly worth considering, yet Longfellow in his youth 
translated Dante's "Inferno" in the ten minutes day after day, while he waited for 
his coffee to boil. "Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost." While Professor 
Mitchell was in charge of a division during the Civil War he said to a young officer : 
"You excuse yourself on the ground that you are only a few minutes late. Sir, I 
have been in the habit of calculating the value of a millionth part of a second !" It 
is the loss of time, a little here and a little there, that makes life a failure and eternity 
an irremediable disappointment. 

CHRIST IN ART AND SONG. 414 

Dr. Amory J. Bradford says : 

It has often seemed to me that the most wonderful thing about Jesus Christ is the 
fact that to every one He seems to be living to-day. Other men aroused enthusiasm; 
Jesus still fires thousands with a willingness to die for Him. Other men live in 
history; Jesus lives in the hearts of consecrated followers. The story of Christianity 
is the story of enthusiasm for Christ. Paul represented himself as taken hold of by 
the love of Christ. The early martyrs competed for the honor of being burned to 
death in His name. The motto of the beautiful St. Francis, who was the friend of 
both man and beast, was "the love of Christ." The art of the world for centuries 
has found its sublimest subjects in the Gospel story. It is a revelation to go through 
the world's great galleries of art. Listen! The most beautiful picture in the National 
Gallery in London is Murillo's "Holy Family"; in Paris, Murillo's "Assumption of 
the Virgin"; in Antwerp, Rubens' "Descent from the Cross"; in Florence, "The 



Madonna de la Sedia"; in Venice, Titian's "Assumption of the Virgin"; in Milan 
Leonardo's "Last Supper"; in Berlin, Guido's "Ecce Homo"; in Rome, "The Cruci- 
fixion," and in Madrid, "The Ascension," by Raphael ; in Dresden, the crown of all 
the world's art, "The Sistine Madonna." 

The place of Jesus in poetry is not less significant. It is illustrated in Dante's 
"Vision," Tennyson's "Holy Grail," Browning's "Christmas Eve," "Easter Day," and 
"Death in the Desert," Whittier's "Our Master," Lanier's "Christ." These are only 
two or three flowers hurriedly picked in the world's great garden of song. 



FRESH ARROWS FROM MANY QUIVERS. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



NUMBERS DO NOT REFER TO PAGES, BUT TO THE ILLUSTRATIONS. 



4 ' A bonny corpse " 

Abstainers worth more 

Abstainer, why archbishop ■ /as an . . . 
Abstinence, Carnegie on value of total 

Abstinence, saved by 

Affection, lack of 

Agassiz and his brother 

Aged, need of 

' ' A handful more " 

Aim, a single 

All-conquering hand, grasp of 

All nature glad 

Alpine shepherds ' praise 

Altruism 227, 233, 

"A man for a' that" 

* ' A middlin ' man of God " 

Appreciation now 

Archbishop Temple, an abstainer . . . 

Artist of pain . .' 

Associations, power of 

Atheist rebuked , 

Attracting sinners 

Attractiveness of sin 



Bait of sin 

Balm for sin 

Bandit, the converted 

Barbara Heck 's work 

Beauty, inward 

Benevolence 

Best, giving God the 

Best wanted 

Bethlehem message to mankind, 

Bible, an ashbarrel 

Bible and artist 

Bible, a recommendation 

Bible, attacks on 

Bible contrasts 

Bible, guide to heaven 

Bible, neglect of 

Bible, power of 

Bible, promises of , 



78 
315 
301 
315 
274 
159 
193 
142 
321 
395 
183 
101 
220 
306 

40 
161 
257 
301 
107 
216 
165 

18 
112 

68 
47 
121 
192 
169 
25 
411 
161 
302 
308 
296 
402 
374 
100 
299 
308 
121 
200 



Birds and emotion 

Birds, cruelty to 

Bishop of Uganda , 

Blind man 's reply , 

Blood money 

"Blues" 

Boldness, won by 

"Boy, long lost" 

Bread, cry for 

Breadth of Gospel 

Breaking in order to bless. 

Breaking laws 

Bride, a waiting 

Bridging a chasm , 

Business, Christians in. ... , 



Card-playing, a gambler's opinion of. 

Careless eye, the 

Carey 's convert 

Chagrin, killed by 

Channel, are you a 

Character, beauty of 

Character, how formed 338, 

Character, shown in little things .... 

Charity 

Cheerfulness 157, 

Cheerfulness, a woman 's 

Children 

Children, education of 

Children, victory of 

Church, a dumb 

Christ, a mirror of heavenly things. . 

Christ and humanity 

Christian in business 

Christian, influence of 

Christian like a diver 

Christian testimony doubted 

Christian not of the world 

Christians, second mile 

Christ in art and song 

Christ in the boat, with 

Christ, joined to 



109 
388 
164 
198 
48 
73 
266 
311 
303 
33a 
333 
92 
377 
193 
205 

262 

61 
222 
370 
205 
370 
412 
201 

53 
389 
177 
123 
208 
293 
323 
387 

95 
174 
143 
171 

38 
171 
358 
414 
283 
288 



[53 



INDEX. 



Christ reveals God to us 342 

Church fig tree 304 

Cleanliness 155, 366 

Clean politics 32 

"Cloak he had worn at Marengo".. 149 

Communion with God 166, 168 

Compassion, Christ 's 160 

Conqueror from Edom 12 

Conscience 116 

Consecrating our gifts to Jesus .... 204 

Considerateness a 30 

Consistent Christians 248 

Contentment 196, 309 

Continuance, patient 408 

Conversion 29 

Conversion, a brakeman 's 273 

Conversion, a great painter 's 214 

Conversion, an artist 's 164 

Conversion, an unexpected 141 

Conversion, a summer time 173 

Conversion, a wonderful 133 

Conversion of a detective 125 

Conversion, John Wesley 's 350 

Conversion, Spanish woman 's 290 

Cordiality, Christian 202 

Courage and safety 329 

Courageous when following Christ .... 330 

Courage in storm 177 

Courage of a preacher 266 

Courage of Ethan Allen 329 

Creed for self , 34 

Cross, symbolism of 406 

Crypt to cathedral 124 

Danger, souls in 195 

Death 23 

Death 124 

Death, faithful unto 238 

Death, Goodman 352 

Death of Gypsy woman 133 

Death on the mountains 170 

Death, no fear of 352 

Debt we cannot pay 236 

Deed, a heart-winning. 282 

Delay, danger of 211 

Devil as blacksmith 148 

Devil 's Samson, the 66 

Difficulties, . getting blessing out of. . 314 

Dipper, a new 292 

Disappointment . : 11 

Disappointment and trouble, goads of. 261 



Discontent, folly of 231 

Disguised sins Ill 

Divers into the past 81 

Divine call to work 54 

Divine gentleness 276 

Doggedness, holy 408 

Doing one 's best 188 

Doing without, grace of 126 

Dream, one woman 's 403 

Drink, power of 230 

Drunkard reclaimed 320 

Drunkard 's child, prayer of 291 

Drunkard 's woe 51 

Duke of Wellington 'a hand 183 

Eagles, men like 317 

Eagles, ownership in 199 

Ear attuned, the 60 

Earthly and heavenly 57 

Easier to bark than to work 269 

Easter morning, brightness of 373 

Energy controlled 93 

Engineer 's face, the 367 

England, how the Gospel came to ... . 354 

Enthusiasm, lack of Christian 221 

Equipment, a gospel 327 

Essentials, test of character 126 

Evil habit 22 

Experience, hard school of 319 

Eye, a seeing 314 

Eye, the seeing 372 

Failed, why he : 251 

Fail, engineers who 395 

Failures, early 336 

Faith 377 

Faith and works going together 322 

Faith, a child 's 154 

Faith, walking by 229 

Faith, weak 160 

Fasting and feasting 349 

Father, a happy 189 

Father 's kiss, the 49 

Faults, transformed 277 

Fellowship, Christian 173 

Fellowship, church 260 

Fertilizers, spiritual 122 

Fidelity to duty 238 

Fight between good and bad 116 

' ' Fill the pit or sell the ass ' 294 

Fire, heart full of 203 



INDEX. 



Fire in the pulpit 275 

Fisher 's bait 132 

Flaw in the title 368 

Flaw, stone with a 



280 

Fly, teaching men to 317 

Fog horn, near a 271 

Folks, interesting 285 

Folly, repenting his 256 

Forgetf ulness, costly 201 

Forgive and forget 120 

Forgiveness, false 120 

Formalism 4, 31 

Foundation, a solid 399 

Foundation, right 368 

Fragrance of text 46 

Freedom, Christian 400 

Free grace 21 

Friendliness 260 

' ' From the Abyss ". 131 

Gain, a dangerous 152 

Gambler 's kindergarten 262 

Generosity, enforced 298 

Giant under a mountain 89 

Give your flowers now 257 

Giving 321 

Giving out of one 's poverty 381 

Gladstone 's personal effort for sinners. 337 

Glamour of vice 110 

God at His palace gate 305 

God, communion with 334 

' ' God don 't care " 178 

God in disgrace, a 147 

God, in the hands of our 140 

God, invisible 118 

< ' God is here " 237 

"God is love" 320 

God knows our names 80 

Godliness in business 102 

God our all 226 

God our mother 247 

God 's care for ravens 83 

God 's existence, evidence of 198 

God 's gift to mankind 340 

God, the Chinaman 's 147 

God, waiting for return of sinner. .. . 276 

God with His people 139 

Going down in order to go up 138 

Going inside or passing by, which?. .. 244 

Gold and potatoes 279 

Golden rule 313 



Gold, nuggets of 39a 

Gold, streets paved with 284 

Gold, weighed down with 289 

1 ' Good-bye to God " 154 

Good enough for him 175 

Goodness and immortality 371 

Good works 20 

Gospel in emergency 99 

Gospel needed, strong 182 

Governor's opinion of family worship. 386 

Grace, saved by 380 

Gratitude 236, 348 

Gregory and the English slaves 354 

Grit and greatness 119 

Ground to powder 165 

Grumbling 271 

Guide-board, true 299 

Gunpowder, need of 245 

Hamburg, custom in 293 

Hand on his shoulder, good man's. . . . 326 

Happiness robe, weaving the 206 

Happiness, secret of 392. 

Harp, our Eolian 167 

Heart changed by God 290 

Heart follows treasure 298 

Heartiness 19 

Hearts, hard 159 

Heaven 1 

Heavenly world, exploring the ....... 407 

Heaven, reception into 215, 246 

Hector 's unwashed hands 65 

Helen Gould, words of 145 

Helen Kellar 229 

"Help a fellow!" 404 

Helping hand, a 351 

He made plows and yokes 361 

Hero, a modern 212" 

Hero, downfall of 130 

Hero of the sea 227 

Heroism, a record of 398 

Higher and lower nature 85 

Hindu mother's offering 411 

History repeating itself 374 

Holy Spirit coming to us 219 

Home pleasures 346 

Hospitality, lack of Christian 263 

Hospitality, opportunities of 349 

How clouds should be worn 281 

How one saloon was closed 310 

Human nature, heroic stuff in 232 



INDEX. 



Humble, glory of the 153 

Humility and reverence 150 

Hypocrite 70 

Idols converted 344 

1 ' I gave them myself " 208 

Ignorance of destination 239 

Image defaced, God 's 242 

' ' I must not complain " 235 

Incarnation created chivalry 36 

Incarnation, the 305 

Independent spirit, the 196 

Infidel, death of 125 

Influence, a mother 's 409 

Influence over others, our 248 

Integrity of life 376 

Intemperance means incapacity 274 

Inventors 64 

Invisible ink 59 

Jewels, lost her life for her 210 

Justice, poetic 176 

' ' Just for the unjust ' ' 43 

Just in time 135 

' ' Keep thy heart ' ' 241 

Kindly daily deeds 62 

Kindness for kindness 331 

Kindness, magic of 169 

Knowledge of God 45 

La Fayette, reception of 215 

Lamb another name for love 127 

Laziness 28 

Leaders who go behind 355 

Lethargy of John Smith 131 

Liberty 15 

Life-boat, welcome 217 

Lifeless creed 98 

Life for a hat, a 163 

Life, purpose of 241 

Life, the hidden 360 

Life, value of 163 

"Lifter-up" 76 

Light from above 151 

Light that leads astray 94 

Liquor saloons, typhoid fever 396 

Liszt and the Czar 249 

Little things, value of 206 

Live, how to 137 

Lives, short-circuited 345 

Locomotive, a steamless 307 



Looking earthward « . . . 84 

Love, hungry for v 382 

Love, magnetism of 265 

Love of the Lamb is a mighty love . . . 181 

Love, power of 127 

Love, reason for their 362 

Love, severity of 340 

Love, the home of the soul 383 

Loving men for Jesus ? sake 216 

Man who left his mark 286 

Martyrs, joy of 139 

Master 's spirit, striving to catch 391 

Measuring day 243 

Meditation 90 

Men owned by God 242 

Minister Wu's opinion of golden rule. 313 

Mischief, easy to do 233 

Misery and joy 55 

Missionary 's experience, a 303 

Mission, respect your own 249 

Mistaking water for sky 114 

Mob in Brazil 136 

Money a reservoir 104 

Money, better things than 376 

Money, love of 289 

Mother, Dean Farrar 's 255 

Mother, getting acquainted with his. . 346 

Mother, love for 209 

Mother 's love 232, 247 

Multitude, fickle 394 

Music on a freight train 117 

Napoleon 's engineer 156 

National sin 69 

Nature and spirit 8 

Neglect, consequences of 6, 270 

Negligence, a conductor 's 270 

Nelson 's care for his sailors 362 

Not many mighty 56 

Obedience to God's commands. 302 

Observation, cultivating power of . . . . 372 

Obstacles to Christian life 91 

Officer, British 130 

Old age, fruit in 254 

Old, glory of growing 339 

Old, showing affection to the 142 

One family in heaven and on earth . . . 410 

One saved six hundred 185 

Only loving them 207 

Opportunity of a night 135 



INDEX. 



Origin of sin 105 

Orphans, God 's care of 224 

Parallel, a striking 186 

Pardon, the king 's 179 

Password, the 180 

Password, the Christian 's 180 

Paul and Eichelieu 339 

Paul 's end 13 

Pawn ticket, story of 306 

Perfect humanity 97 

Perfect in weakness 86 

Perseverance 390 

Persistence rewarded 390 

Personality of Satan 33b 

Personal interest 326 

Personal service 282 

Personal touch, the 337 

Pessimists, prince of ... . 175 

Pilate 's body 52 

' ' Pleasant, she waj so " 253 

Pleasures of passion 345 

Pledge, coat that carried a 312 

Poor, considering the 267 

Power of Christ 's love 181 

Power, personal 190 

Praise God the Lord 220 

Praise, mouth filled with 222 

Prayed together, when Cooper and 

Landseer 295 

Pray without ceasing 136 

Prayer, after a night of 379 

Prayer and courage 44 

Prayer, answer to 254 

Prayer, eight hours a day 252 

Prayer is, what 168 

Prayer, Japanese definition of 250 

Prayer, need of 197 

Prayer of Morse 150 

Prayer, railroad man 's 218 

Prayer, two parts of 166 

Prayers answered, little boy's 291 

Praying for thistles 82 

Preaching ^9 

Preparation 27 

Preparation, Sunday-school teacher's. 307 

Pride before a faU 170 

Pride, toil conquering 325 

Professional, the coming 184 

Promises, forgotten 267 

Promises, pleading the 385 



Promise, the shining 200 

Prosperity, crazed by 287 

Pure in heart 108 

Putting yourself in the other 's place . . 240 

Queen Victoria 's wish 335 

Eace suicide and landlords 123 

Eaisins for bullets 182 

Eeader 's prayer 146 

' ' Eead your own name in ". 179 

Eecommendation, a good 402 

Eef orm 3 

Eef ormation 2 

Eegeneration 292 

Eeligion, a finished 316 

Eeligion, nervousness in 353 

Eemorse 115, 128 

Eepentanee, late 256, 258 

Eescue, a daring 405 

Eesponded to a true note 134 

Eesponsibility 367 

Eevelation progressive 332 

Eevival, first-fruits of 141 

Eich and poor 41 

Eiches, best use of 318 

Eiches, love for 210 

Eiches, true 318 

' l Eight up to de handle " 194 

Eobin's breast is red, why 348 

Eose cure, the 187 

Sacrifice of Christ 405 

Saints, modern 223 

Saloons, a railroad without 328 

Satan V deceit 87 

Savonarola 35 

Saved from death 217 

Saved, how one young man was 297 

Saving the fragments 413 

Scholar and patron 63 

Scripture, memcrizing 393 

Scripture, treasures of 341 

Searching sinners 24 

Secrets, important 162 

Seed, bearing a hundred-fold 259 

Seeing without eyes 378 

' ' Seek and ye shall find " 341 

Seeking men 322 

Self-conceit 357 

Self-control 363 

Selfishness 10 



INDEX. 



Selfishness, doom of. ... . 144 

Self-mastery, fight for 230 

Self-respect 365 

Sermon, Farrar 's first 336 

Sermon, Hindu boy 's 118 

Service, imperfect 280 

Service, willing 358 

Sheep know his voice, Christ 's 172 

Shepherd, a different 330 

Shepherd in Orient 172 

Sin 5 

Sin, blotting out 129 

Sin, consciousness of 128 

Sin, consequences of 234 

Sin, discovered 364 

Sin, sense of 115 

Sin 's secret poison 113 

Slanderers 72 

Small and great sins 103 

Smile, everybody understands a 389 

Song, Christian, power of 310 

Song in the night 228 

Song, power of 117 

Song, power of Christian 278 

Songs, market for 157 

Sorrow, causing songs 167 

Sorrows, influence of 261, 333 

Soul, response of 134 

Souls, value of 259, 359 

Sowing and reaping 234, 338 

Special blessings 17 

Spiritual discernment 58 

Spiritual lif e 7 

Spiritual sight 378 

Starlight to sun, from 332 

Stephen, a young Christian 37 

Stevenson on Burns 144 

Storm at sea 140 

' ' A stranger and ye took me in "... . 224 

Strangers, two ways of dealing with. . 202 

Struggle essential to strength 397 

' < Stuffing ' ' allowed, no 188 

Success, imperilled by 152 

Sudden conversion 42 

Suffering shut out 106 

Sunlight, driven by 343 

Sun of Righteousness 343 

Superintendent 's eye 79 

Surgeon 's, carefulness of 155 

Swelled head, disease of 357 



Swearers rebuked 4 324 

Sympathy 14, 184 

Sympathy and help 403 

Teaching slaves to read 185 

Teetotalism 384 

Temper 26 

Temperance lecture, a young woman's. 268 

Temptation, results of 225 

Temptations, uses of 148 

Testing time 225 

Thankfulness 16 

Theater, why La Fayette gave up the. 272 

Thumb-prints, traced by 364 

1 ' Thwackings, ' ' value of 356 

Thy brother 's keeper 67 

Time, value of 413 

Tissot 's pictures of Christ 214 

To die for a totem 406 

Toothless tigers 77 

Tree that shocks 143 

Trial, a world of 401 

Trifles, significance of 251 

Trouble, time for. 158 

Trust 75 

Trust in God 228 

Trusted, poor men who are 162 

Tune, keeping in 197 

Turgenieff 's humanity 388 

Unrest, spiritual 187 

Victory after defeat 149 

Victory, a woman 's 213 

Voice, a child 's 278 

Walter Scott 's work 235 

Warning, heed the 369 

Warnings of ministry 369 

Watch and pray 375 

Watch, the anchor 375 

Water, drinking toast in 212 

Weak swords 39 

Wealth, obligations of 145 

Weight of the rope 211 

Weights, his own 176 

Wesley, influence of 286 

What Christian workers need 132 

Whence and whither 239 

When the tide came in 219 

Wicked Jim 178 



INDEX. 



Willingness to forgive, God's 300 

Willing to be saved, making us 264 

Will-power, triumph of 156 

"Will you be there?" 190 

Wires, earth -girdling. 288 

Woman, death of 153 

Woman, influence of one 213 

Woman in the background, a good. . . 192 

Won by prayer 191 

Word in season 273, 297, 324 

Words as coins 88 

Words like fire 96 

Work, faithful 361 

Work, pride in on,e 7 S .,,.., . 194 



World beneath us 138 

Worries, hiding 158 

Worship, family 386 

"Would Jesus Christ sell out?" 174 

Writing, erased 129 

Yesterday, to-day and to-morrow.... 137 

Yesterday 's honey 74 

Youth, achievements of 119 

Youth and age 50 

Youth, keeping our 347 



Zeal 



71 



Zeal, result of knowledge 203 

Zeal wanted .,.....,,.,,.,,.,,,,,,, 245 



SCRIPTURAL INDEX. 



NUMBERS IN THIS INDEX DO NOT REFER TO THE PAGES, BUT TO THE II,I«USTRATlONS. 



Gen. 1: 26 242 

Gen. 9:9, 10 388 

Gen. 28: 15 140 

Gen. 28: 16 237 

Gen. 33 : 5 123 

Gen. 41 : 38-40 162 

Gen. 44: 20 345 

Ex. 3: 5 237 

Ex. 12: 5.. 411 

Ex. 16: 14 206 

Ex. 19: 4 199, 317 



Ex. 20:9..., 

Ex. 25 : 2 . . . 
Ex. 32: 32... 
Ex. 34: 6, 7, 
Ex. 35:21... 



392 
298 
313 
300 

298 



Lev. 19 : 32 142, 209, 339 



Deut. 4: 30, 31. 
Deut. 6: 6, 7... 
Deut. 8: 2 



264 

386 

397 

Deut. 8: 10 287 

Deut. 8: 11 267 

Deut. 11: 22, 23 302 

Deut. 14: 29 267 

Deut. 32: 11 193 

Deut. 32 : 11, 12 317 

Deut. 33 : 29 140 

Josh. 1: 6 329 

Josh. 10 : 25 329 

Josh. 22 : 14 385 

Josh. 24:15 386 

Josh. 24:16 282 

Judges 5: 2 298 

1 Sam. 1: 27 *, 409 

1 Sam. 12 : 23 191 

1 Sam. 16: 7..... ^... 372 

1 Sam. 16 23 117 

1 Sam. 24:5 ^ 116 

1 Sam. 25: 36, 37 268 



2 Sam. 12: 7 266 

2 Sam. 22: 36 276 

2 Sam. 24: 24 411 

1 Kings 2:2 352 

1 Kings 8 : 56 187, 385 

1 Kings 19: 12, 13 134 

2 Kings 3 : 15 117 

2 Kings 5: 2, 3 177, 354 

2 Kings 17:39 136 

1 Chron. 16: 24, 34 175 

1 Chron. 28:8 341 

1 Chron. 28: 9 280 

1 Chron. 29 : 3, 14 318 

1 Chron. 29 : 12 287 

2 Chron. 7: 10 157 

2 Chron. 30: 27 168 



Neh. 9:27., 
Neh. 13:14. 



Job 6 

Job 8 

Job 8 

Job 10 



4.., 
13., 
21.. 
: 14. 



200 
286 

115 

201 
222 
364 

294 



Job 11:14 

Job 13: 27 364 

Job 22: 27 255 

Job 23: 8, 9 117 

Job 23:12 296 

Job 28: 15-20 279, 284, 393 

Job 31: 24 279 

Job 33:27 234 

Job 35: 10 228 

Job 37: 14 198 

Job 38:41... 388 

Job 42:8 191 



Psa. 1:2. 

Psa. 1: 3. 

Psa. 4:3. 

Psa. 4: 7. 



402 
254 
179 
281 



161 



INDEX. 



Ezek. 34:11-16 172 

Ezek. 34: 12 164 

Ezek. 36: 26 290, 292 



Dan. 1:8 

Dan. 3: 18... 
Dan. 6: 3, 4. 
Dan. 9:8.... 



Hosea 4: 11 , T , 
llosea 5: 15. 
Hosea 13: 14, 



384 
156 
162 
128 

268 
333 
193 



Joel 1:5 ^ 312 

Joel 2:1 323 

Joel 3:3 312 



Amos 3:6. 



369 



Micah 3:8 .. 266 

Micah 6:8 150 

Micah 7:7 226 

Micah 7:8 149 

Micah 7: 18, 19 -.-. 300 

Hab. 2:5 384 



Zech. 7: 11, 12, 



270 

411 

297 

Mai. 2 : 10 285 



Mai. 1: 8. 
Mai. 2: 6. 



Mai. 3: 10. 
Mai. 3: 16. 
_al. 3: 17. 



320 

260 

189 

Mai. 4:2 332, 343 



Matt. 5: 3.. 
Matt. 5: 11. 



138 

356 

Matt. 5: 12 225 

Matt. 5 : 13-16 205 

Matt. 5:17 396 

Matt. 5 : 19 206 

Matt. 5 : 39-41 358 

Matt. 6:6 255 

Matt. 6: 19-21 210 

Matt. 6:21 241 

Matt. 6:25 376 

Matt. 6: 26 388 

Matt. 7: 7 341 

Matt. 8: 15 337 

Matt. 9:37., 303 

Matt. 11:25 278 

Matt. 12 : 50 351 

Matt. 15: 18 ,.. 159 



Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 
Matt. 



16: 
16: 
18: 
18: 
18: 
18: 
21: 
21: 
21: 
22: 
24: 
24: 
25: 
25: 
25: 
25: 
25: 
26: 
28: 
28: 



26.., 
27... 
3, 4. 
5.... 



.. 359 
.. 125 
.. 154 
.. 293 



19 .....191, 295 

32, 33 236 

9.. 394 

16 278 

44 K 165 

29, 308, 374 

42 375 

45, 46... -s-.- 194 

21 194, 218 

27 204 

29 412 

34 218 

34-36 202, 224 

10-13 382 

18, 20 414 

19, 20 322 



Mark 1 : 17 132 

Mark 1: 41. ,. 326, 337 

Mark 4 : 5, 6 119 

Mark 4:8, 26, 27 259 

Mark 4 : 31, 32. 259 

Mark 8:36 152 

Mark 10 : 13, 16 326 

Mark 10:15 293 

Mark 12 : 44 381 

Mark 15:13, 14 394 

Mark 16:15 322 

Luke 1:75 137 

Luke 4: 20-22 132 

Luke 5:29 349 

Luke 7: 36. 349 

Luke 11:28 302 

Luke 12: 6 .....206 

Luke 12 : 15 152, 289, 376 

Luke 12 : 18, 19. 239 

Luke 12: 20, 21 359 

Luke 12: 20 152 

Luke 12 : 21 210 

Luke 12:47 307 

Luke 12: 37 204 

Luke 12: 57 116 

Luke 13:13 337 

Luke 14:11.... 138 

Luke 14: 13, 14 263 

Luke 13 : 14 392 



INDEX. 



Luke 15:4 -.- 164 

Luke 15: 24, 32 311 

Luke 15:32 273 

Luke 16: 10 194, 412 

Luke 16:10-12 188, 361 

Luke 16 : 19-26 345 

Luke 18 : 1-7 252 

Luke 18: 3, 5 119 

Luke 18:14........... 138 

Luke 18 : 16, 17 154 

Luke 18 : 24 210 

Luke 19:10 164 

Luke 19: 17 188, 218 

Luke 23:35 227 

Luke 24: 30, 31 349 

Luke 24: 32 214 

Luke 24:49 182 



John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
Jchn 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 
John 



1:4. 
1: 5.. 
1: 15, 
1:18., 



332 

378 

384 

118 

1: 29 127 

1: 45 303 

2: 17 275 

3: 16 180, 181 

4:35 303 

4: 39 369 

5: 39 308 

6:9 354 

6: 39 125 



133 

219 

156 

176 

12 151, 332 



6: 44. 
6: 63. 
7: 17. 

8: 7.. 



8: 19. 
8: 31. 



178 

288 

10: 3-5 172 

10: 4 355 

10: 11 405 

10: 12 330 

10: 17 316 

10: 18 227 

10: 38 342 

12: 3 , 257 

12: 32 , 265 

12:35.... 211 

12: 45 372 

13: 34, 35 216 

14:2 410 



John 14: 7 178, 342 

John 14: 16-18 283 

John 14:18 *» 139 

John 14:21 197 

John 15: 2 167, 261 

John 15 : 4 143, 288 

John 15 : 4, 5 171 

John 15:9.. 190 

John 15:13 ... 405 

John 16:3 ,. 178 

John 16:33 271 

John 16:27... 362 

John 17:16 171 

John 17: 23 190 

John 18: 9 311 

John 20 : 9 308 

John 21:12 214 

John 21:15 382 

Acts 1: 8 182 

Acts 2: 37.... 141 

Acts 3 : 19 273 

Acts 4: 12 217 

Acts 4: 31 266 

Acts 6:8 182 

Acts 8: 3,4 314 

Acts 8: 30 146 

Acts 9:11 121 

Acts 9: 21, 22 121 

Acts 10: 38 282 

Acts 10: 43 350 

Acts 11:19-21 314 

Acts 16: 31 350 

Acts 16 : 33, 34 386 

Acts 17:22, E. V 132 

Acts 17: 26 285 

Acts 20:20 185 

Acts 20: 24 227, 306, 398 

Acts 21: 13 185, 398 

Acts 22: 16 366 

Acts 26: 2, 3 132 

Acts 26: 23 373 

Acts 26: 29 245 

Eom. 2 : 1, 21, 22 176 

Eom. 2:4, 5 270 

Eom. 2: 7 390 

Eom. 2:8 144 

Eom. 2:14 133 

Eom. 2: 15 116 

Eom. 2:29 360 



INDEX. 

Rom. 4:8 236 1 Cor. 11: 1. 190,248,355 

Eom. 5:3... 356 1 Cor. 12:1-11 204 

Rom. 5: 8 236, 320 1 Cor. 12: 26 184, 285 

Rom. 6:8 244 1 Cor. 13:3 257 

Eom. 6:21.... 130 1 Cor. 13:7 158 

Rom. 6: 23 144, 165, 195 1 Cor. 13: 13, E. V 169, 207, 383 

Rom. 7: 12 396 1 Cor. 14: 9 .'336 

Eom. 7 : 15-19 « 128 1 Cor. 14: 24, 25 141 

Eom. 8: 5 391 1 Cor. 15: 19, 20 373 

Rom. 8:9 w 391 1 Cor. 15:58 ^ 408 

Rom. 8:32 340 1 Cor. 16: 13 156,212,375 

Eom. 8:35 288 

Eom. 10:1 245 2 Cor - 1: 4 200 

Eom. 11:13 249,365 2 Cor. 1:21,22 179 

Eom. 12:6-8 412 2 Cor - 2:15, 16 244 

Eom. 12:10 233 2 Cor. 3:18 387 

Eom. 12:11 221 2 Cor. 4:6 387 

Eom. 12:13 263 2 Cor. 4:8, 9 149 

Eom. 12:15 184 2 Cor. 4:16 360 

Eom. 12:16 357 2 Cor. 5:1.... 124 

.iom. 12:17 251 2 Cor. 5:14, 15 265 

Eom. 13:1 272 2 Cor. 7:9 340 

Eom. 13:8..., 207 2 Cor. 8:2 381 

Eom. 13:14 126 2 Cor. 8:21 251 

Eom. 14:9 305 2 Cor. 9: 6 145, 338 

Eom. 14:14...-, 344 2 Cor. 9:8 304 

Eom. 14: 13, 21 301 2 Cor. 10: 15 368 

Eom. 15:1 313, 404 2 Cor. 11:29 403 

Eom. 15:1-3 145, 223, 306 2 Cor. 12:9 122, 183 

Eom. 15:2 233, 240 2 Cor. 12:10 398 

Eom - 15:17 249, 406 M 1:1B) 23 121 

Eom - 15:2 368 QaL 5;1 400 



1 Cor. 1: 18 244 

1 Cor. 1: 27 278 

1 Cor. 2:2 406 

1 Cor. 2: 6-9 407 

1 Cor. 2: 10-13 219, 229 

1 Cor. 2: 14 ....378, 407 

1 Cor. 3: 11 368, 399 



Gal. 5: 14 383 

Gal. 5: 22 281 

Gal. 5: 22, 23 143 

Gal. 5: 24 126 

Gal. 6: 1, 2 404 

Gal. 6:2 145, 173, 403 

Gal. 6: 5 158 



1 Cor. 3:16 391 ^1.6:7,8 338 

Gal. 6:9 390, 408 



Gal. 6: 14 406 



1 Cor. 4: 2 188 

1 Cor. 6:7 358 

1 Cor. 6: 11.... 155, 366 Eph. 2:4 320 

1 Cor. 8:4 344 Eph. 2:7 122 

1 Cor. 8:9 301 Eph. 2:8 350 

1 Cor. 9: 22.... 403 Eph. 2:10 235 

1 Cor. 10: 13 230 Eph. 2:20.... 399 

lCor. 10:24 313 Eph. 3:14-19 379 

1 Cor. 10: 24, 33 213 Eph. 3.- 15 410 

1 Cor. 10: 33 223 Eph. 3:16 183 



INDEX. 



Eph. 3:17-19 276 

Eph. 4: 17, 18 131 

Eph. 4:24 242 

Eph. 4 : 32 331 

Eph. 5:14 131 

Eph. 5 : 16 413 

Eph. 5:19 117 

Eph. 5: 18-21 > .310, 312, 315 

Eph. 5:25 257 

Eph. 6:2 209 

Eph. 6: 10, 19 212 

Eph. 6:13-17 327 



1 Tim. 6: 20 146 

1 Tim. 1: 5 ^ 208 



Phil. 
Phil. 
Phil. 
Phil. 
Phil. 
Phil. 
Phil. 
Phil. 
Phil. 
Phil. 
Phil. 
Phil. 
Phil. 
Phil. 



1: 12. ., 
1: 12-14. 

1: 23.., 
2:3, 4.. 
2:4 



167 

314 

283 

240 

213, 313 

2: 5-8 .-... 305 

2: 21 144 

3: 13 241 

3: 19 345 

4: 6 166, 252, 334 

4:9 248 

4:11 309 

4: 13... ,.183 

4: 19 226 



Col. 1: 10 304 

Col. 3:3 360 

Col. 3: 16 117, 310 

Col. 3: 17, 23 269 

Col. 4: 5 ,- 413 

Col. 4: 12, 13 221 



1 Thess. 1:6 

1 Thess. 4:15-17, 

1 Thess. 5: 14.. 

1 Thess. 5: 17... 



248 
410 
404 
252 



2 Thess. 3: 13 390, 408 



,207, 409 

309 

.... 180 
316 



1 Tim. 1: 5.... 

1 Tim. 1:6 

1 Tim. 1: 15 

1 Tim 2:5, 6 

1 Tim. 4:4 175 

1 Tim. 4: 13 146 

1 Tim. 5:1 ^. 142 

1 Tim. 5: 10 263 

1 Tim. 5: 24 130 

1 Tim. 6: 6 ..196, 231 



2 Tim. 1:9.. 
2 Tim. 2:4... 
2 Tim. 2: 15.. 
2 Tim. 3:4... 
2 Tim. 3: 15. . 



....sr.: 380 

as. 395 

, 307 

345 

, 299 

2 Tim. 4 : 7, 8 ^ 124 



Titus 2:7 282 

Titus 2: 11 380 

Titus 2 : 11, 12 126 

Titus 2: 14 235 

Titus 3:1 272, 304 

Philemon 7 205 

Philemon 19 367 

Heb. 2:9 316 

Heb 2: 15 353 

Heb. 2: 16 160 

Heb. 2: 18 148 

Heb. 3: 13 211 

Heb. 4: 15 160 

Heb. 4: 16 197, 334, 379 

Heb. 6: 4-6 256 

Heb. 6: 19 375 

Heb. 7: 26 174 

Heb. 9: 27 125 

Heb. 10: 17 120 

Heb. 10:35 149 

Heb. 11: 1, 13 229 

Heb. 11: 16 407 

Heb. 11: 38 223 

Heb. 12:1 128 

Heb. 12:10, 11 261 

Heb. 12: 11 401 

Heb. 13:1 331 

Heb. 13: 1, 2 224 

Heb. 13: 2 202, 260 

Heb. 13: 3 184 

ixeb. 13: 5 309 

Heb. 13: 18 251 

Jas. 1:2, 3 356 

Jas. 1: 2-4, 12 147, 22o 

Jas. 1: 5 •, 122 

Jas. 1: 17 151 

Jas. 1: 25 ^. 119, 302, 400 

Jas. 1: 27 202 

Jas. 2: 5..' • 177 



INDEX. 

Jas. 3:9 242 Uohn 4: 19 362 

Jas. 4: 10 138 1 John 4: 20, 21 173 

Jas. 4: 13, 14 239 1 John 5 : 13 179 

Jas. 5: 13 157, 389 

Jas. 5: 19, 20 297 3 John 5 224, 348 

1 Pet. 1:4 246 Jude 3 221 

1 Pet. 1:7 397 Jude 24 237 

1 Pet. 1:15, 16 174 „ , w - 

1 Pet 1:17-21 137 «ev. 1: 17-19 181,214 



Eev. 1:18 414 

Eev. 2:5 256 



1 Pet. 1: 22 351 

1 Pet. 2: 11 126 

1 Pet. 2:12 205 ReV - 2: 10 238 > 34S 



1 Pet. 2: 13, 14 272 

1 Pet. 2 : 16 400 

1 Pet. 2 : 24 316 

1 Pet. 2:23 358 ^v. 3: 15, 16 161,203,245 



Eev. 3:3 270 

Eev. 3:4 , 371 

Eev. 3:9 276 



1 Pet. 3: 8 253 

1 Pet. 4: 9. 202, 260 

1 Pet. 5: 8, 9 148 



\ 



Eev. 3 : 20 139 

Eev. 4: 10 335 

Eev. 5:8 250 

Eev. 5: 9 127 

2 Pet. 1:7 331 Eev - 5:12 181 > 414: 

2 Pet*. 1-14.!..!..!.. ..!..!.....! 124 Rev. 5:12, 13 220 

2 Pet. 1: 19 151, 299 Rev - 5: 13 335 

2 Pt,t. 1: 19-21 374 Rev. 7: 9, 10 335 

2 Pet. 2:20 395 Bev. 7:13-15 215, 246 

2 Pet. 2:21 161 R ev. 7:14 155 

2 Pet. 3:4 377 E ev. 7:17 127 

2 Pet. 3: 16 336 Eev. 7: 14-17 124 

Eev. 12: 11 238 

1 John 1: 3 139, 179 Eev. 14: 13 286 

1 John 1: 7 180 Eev. 19: 7, 8 377 

1 John 2: 6 174 Eev. 20:13 243 

1 John 2: 15 395 Eev. 21:2 377 

1 John 3: 14 173, 351 Eev. 21: 17 243 

1 John 3: 16 405 Eev. 21: 18-21 284 

1 John 4:7, 11, 21 216 Eev. 22: 12, 14.. 371 

1 John 4:8,,,,, 320 Eev. 22: 14 215 



1 * 



■ h 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Ox.de 
Treatment Date: Oct. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

I WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 



111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



